not at all arguing this is okay, not even a little

but

If you are the French government, and you know what the French populace has a history of doing to the French government, it would be understandable to want to keep your eye on them, no?

again. It ain’t cool. But I’m honestly surprised they didn’t hop on the “intrusive surveillance” bandwagon sooner, like, as soon as mass surveillance became feasible, and have the privacy laws they do.