20+ internet companies are in the process of filing a complaint against France’s State Council against a declaration that forces companies such as Google, Facebook, Ebay, and others, to preserve all personal user data for an entire year.
The French Association of Internet Community Services, aka ASIC, will file a formal appeal against this mandate.
Over the past few years, internet privacy has been a huge concern and French authorities have had an unclear view of user privacy. When Google mistakenly collected private information from public Wi-Fi networks, France was prompt to fine the company for $142,000 for violating the privacy of the people.
The previously mentioned decree, that was announced in March, requires ecommerce, video and email sites to preserve private user data for an entire year. This includes users full name, cell phone number, passwords, and addresses.
The scary part about all of this is that “the French police, the fraud office, customs, tax or social security authorities can demand to view the data.” Yes, privacy does often have to be sacrificed in order to enable security, but isn’t requiring this of Facebook, Google, and other social media sites a little much?
Many become concerned that large corporations have a lot of private information, but it may be even more of a concern for the government to have that same information at its fingertips. Historically, the government has abused citizen’s privacy on the basis that it for the “greater good.”
This new decree that stores data for a year may open a whole lot more possibilities for users private information to be abused. The ASIC is extremely concerned with the decree. “This is a shocking measure, this obligation to keep passwords and hand them over to police service.”
What are your thoughts? Do worry about your privacy on social media sites?
