BBC reporters give a snapshot of the extent of surveillance across Europe: the most spied upon people in Europe.

Here is Emma Jane Kirby’s view from France:

When you remember that the word “Liberty” is one of just three words enshrined in the French Republic’s motto, you can guess that on the whole, the French are not big fans of surveillance equipment.

Too bad then that last year, the French Interior Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, announced that the number of CCTV cameras in France would triple by 2009 in a bid to crack down on street crime and to fight terrorism.

Official estimates suggest there are already about 340,000 authorised surveillance cameras in France and this new move would see the number of cameras on Paris’s public transport network hit 6,500 in the next two years – compared with a projected 9,000 on the London Underground in the same period.

Plans to deploy 4ft-long spy drones across French skies in an attempt to tackle the country’s growing problem of gang violence were also unveiled.

The drones, with day-night vision, will be used to track suspects and should begin full operational testing this year. The plan has annoyed many local officials who doubt spy cameras are the answer – they would rather see neighbourhood police officers brought back.

Surveillance cameras are not just kept for the streets. Last year a company which manufactures GPS systems for cars launched Kiditel, a child-tracking device.

The games console-sized device slips into a child’s pocket and allows parents to keep track of their child’s movements via satellite images sent to their computers.

Many parents welcomed a product they believed would help their children keep safe, but psychologists like Jean Claude Guillemard were not so welcoming:

“The children who have this device will think of their parents as Big Brother” he said. “I think that scares me. I think it’s dangerous for their mental health.”

Similarly a French childminder caused a row last year when she became the first nanny to install an internet webcam in her creche so that parents could still look in on their children – and see that she was taking good care of them – even though they were at work.

The parents loved it, but local authorities and the National Federation of Maternal Assistants denounced the idea as undermining the relationship of trust between the parents and the child minder.

The eye in the sky may be keeping an ever closer watch on France – but the French are determined to keep their liberty.