Tables have turned in France where once the French privacy watchdog, CNIL, fined Google £87,000 (which was also the largest ever fine handed out by CNIL) when it accidentally collected personal data during the setting up of its Street View service.
Even Facebook was forced to overhaul its privacy settings following criticism that they were too complex.
Now, the French government is planning to keep web users’ personal data for a year. The law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers.
This includes users’ full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords. The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded. Police, the fraud office, customs, tax and social security bodies will all have the right of access.
More than 20 firms, including French online video firm, Dailymotion, Google and eBay.
The legal challenge has been brought by The French Association of Internet Community Services (ASIC) and relates to government plans to keep web users’ personal data for a year.
In an interview with BBC, ASIC head Benoit Tabaka said that he believes that the data law is unnecessarily draconian. “Several elements are problematic. For instance, there was no consultation with the European Commission. Our companies are based in several European countries. Our activities target many national markets, so it is clear that we need a common approach,” said Tabaka.
ASIC also thinks that passwords should not be collected and warned that retaining them could have security implications.
Infosec India 