According to AFP, twenty of the world's top Internet companies, including eBay, Dailymotion, Facebook and Google, are filing a complaint with France's highest court against a directive which would make each company keep users' personal data for a year. The collaboration will bring the base before the Conseil d'État, the highest and last-option legal court consisting of high ranking legal bureaucrats.
Benoit Tabaka, from the French Association of Internet Community Services (ASIC), said, "The ASIC is appealing at the State Council against the decree to keep connection data." The directive, published only a few weeks a go (March), orders shopping sites as well as social networking websites involving media, such as Dailymotion, to keep a vast array of information and personal data on their users including full names, usernames, passwords, mail addresses, multiple email addresses and telephone numbers.
Under the directive, the information is to be made available to the police, fraud office, customs and tax bodies, and other security authorities for up to a year after the information has first been entered into any of the sites.
"Several elements are problematic. For instance, there was no consultation with the European Commission," said Tabaka. "This is a shocking measure, this obligation to keep passwords and hand them over to police services." The ASIC will be filing the complaint on Wednesday morning.
Image Credit: Vlad Loteanu
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