Paris police have been banned from using drones to monitor coronavirus social distancing compliance.
Top judges in France said the use of drones in this way is an “infringement on privacy rights.”
According to a Bloomberg report, the country’s highest administrative court said the operation “constitutes a serious and manifestly unlawful infringement of privacy rights.”
France was in lockdown for almost eight weeks and started easing measures on May 11.
Bloomberg explained how the Conseil d’Etat ruled that drones can no longer be used until the concerns are addressed, either via a privacy-friendly law or by equipping the drones with technology that makes it impossible to identify the people filmed.
The ruling comes after civil liberty groups filed a lawsuit earlier in the month.