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Google, Facebook and Microsoft complain about French Internet decree
SOME BIG NAMES including Google, Facebook and Microsoft are complaining about French Internet data rules through industry group Association des Services Internet Communautaires (ASIC).
A decree published in a French legal journal in early March calls for Internet companies to store data on users for a year, including IP addresses, usernames and passwords, all of which must be handed over to authorities if requested.
The industry group, which also includes eBay, AOL and Dailymotion, is expected to make a formal complaint tomorrow to the Consel d'Etat, France's high court, according to Bloomberg.
The secretary general of ASIC, Benoit Tabaka, said that its members' primary complaint relates to passwords. He said, "this is clearly not identification data, but personal data".
ASIC also accused French authorities of not properly notifying the European Commission, which could find that the rules go too far.
It is difficult to see how handing over passwords can justified under current EU laws, but if the decree is allowed to go forward in France then it will be only a matter of time before other countries follow suit. µ
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NO OFFENSE INTENDED.
ANYWAY WHO CARES ABOUT THE PASSWORD. MY PASSWORD IS SHOUTER123. GO AHEAD, DO ALL THE DAMAGE YOU WANT!
This is even worse then privacy rights in China. The affected companies most likelely don't even store passwords clear text so they probably can't even provide the passwords requiring a complete redesign of their security models for the french market. Also, e-mails got a kind of authenticiy over the last years where it would almost count a real written letter. With more people/organizations knowing everybody's password and being able to log in and send e-mails, this will be forever history. Sarkazy has always been a bas***d. Hope he doesn't get reelected.
This is what I'd with the French flag
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/22/article-0-093F2CE3000005DC-657_468x293.jpg
"only a matter of time before other countries follow suit"
By the time anyone else gets around to implementing it, there will already have a been an international front page news story about a bunch of email address and passwords being stolen that, surprise, surprise, are valid across multiple services.
French governement is as incompetent as careless about people's privacy. One of the former minister in charge of telecoms couldn't tell the difference between openoffice and a firewall.
The system stores a hash of the password. When I log in, I present the password and it is hashed again. If the result is the same, I am admitted. The rest of the time, my password does not exist.
I don't approve of hacking but someone needs to teach the French government what a bad idea this is, such as by obtaining the codes to launch some of their nuclear missiles - not to blow up anywhere important, of course, tempting though it is.