“French lawmakers backed a plan to impose penalties including jail time on technology executives who deny access to encrypted data during a terrorist investigation, giving security services and prosecutors the power to force companies such as Apple Inc. to cooperate,” Helene Fouquet and Marie Mawad report for Bloomberg.
“An amendment providing the new power was submitted by the opposition party The Republicans and, while the government hasn’t officially supported the measure, it was included in Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas’s bill to overhaul legal procedures and fight organized crime in the wake of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris,” Fouquet and Mawad report. “The lower of chamber of parliament cleared the bill on first reading by 474 votes to 32.”
Fouquet and Mawad report, “France’s bill will be reviewed by the Senate once it clears the lower house and the government aims for a final vote in the lower house in coming months.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pap.
SEE ALSO:
French parliament votes to penalize smartphone makers over encryption – March 4, 2016
Proposed law would allow France to fine Apple €1 million unless it hacks iPhones – February 29, 2016
Nah. I’m pretty sure if Tim won’t do it for the US, he won’t care about what France has to say about it.
Of course it should be understood that “terror data” is any data that the government can’t get a hold of.
From the politician’s viewpoint terrorists are the best thing since sliced bread.
It sure helps justify their existence and certainly serves as role models for them to emulate. It’s all about power and control for those types.
Particularly that of political opponents.
If it passes, Apple should suspend iPhone sales in France. Methinks French folks would bring back the guillotine.
The French can buy the phones from anyone in the EU. Apple doesn’t need any executives in France.
Okay so I have come to France – looking to work in IT but this is the easiest last thing to help me make up my mind weather to stay.
Thanks France you have a valuable culture but your government is out of date.
Back to the Future in New Zealand I think .:-)
Yes laws to make make smart people leave
With that sort of financial penalty for each iPhone that Apple does not unlock, it simply wouldn’t be viable to sell iPhones in France.
I don’t think that Apple would have any choice other than withdraw iPhones from sale in France. However it would be fascinating to see which companies continue to sell smartphones in France because those ones will be capable of being unlocked and therefore be known to have a back door. Those companies might make extra sales in France, but would anybody anywhere else in the world want to buy those models?
This proposed legislation is back-dated and applies to any device sold after the start of 2016, so it’s not even practical to wait until the proposal becomes law as by then there would be hundreds of thousands of iPhones that would fall outside of this law.
I think that Apple might decide to act very swiftly and withdraw iPhones from the French market. This would minimise their exposure to this risk but would also send a powerful message to other countries that if you pass laws of this type, your citizens will not be able to buy iPhones within your borders.
But then what happens to AAPL as a investment? If governments are attempting to put the most successful company in the world out of business then they have started down that slope.
USA Today reported that the military has used surveillance drones inside the United States.
The whole world seems to have gone nuts.
“This proposed legislation is back-dated and…”
Always the sign of a corrupt government.
And all the terrorists can continue to use devices bought before 2016.
Say goodbye to iPhone sales in France..
If stupid governments do this they will shutdown manufacturing of all products. This isn’t about one phone or company it is about all electronics, and services. To propose such a stupid bill is just unthinkable. Apple will stop selling all of its products in France and many people will lose there jobs. Apple is about privacy for all there products, not just the iPhone. Idiots like this will just keep adding to there stupidity and drive all sales out of there country and the jobs with it. No company could economically deal with such penalties and stay in business and it is absolutely insane that they would propose such stupidity and actually approve it.
Of course they will. Everything that European governing body does, is to collect as much money as the can from anyone, to support there corrupt spending. That’s how they think, keep spending, because they’ll get it from someone & it’s not coming out of their own pockets.
EvenifAoplestopped selling phones in France this won’t change a thing. If an iPhone is used in France Apple would have to be completely out of the European Union to avoid prosecution. This will need to be stopped in the Senate and the Senate is a majority Republican I believe, the party that authored the bill. Cowardly Socialists went along with the Republicans because they are afraid of losing their jobs next year and a slaughter of 130 people and hundreds injured is a pretty tough argument to fight. There is nothing good for Apple here, France has them by the short and curlies in this one. France doesn’t care about hackers they care about finding out that FUCKING BELGIUM IS A SECURITY JOKE!
Let them eat cake…..
“Victory belongs to the most preserving” – Napolean Bonaparte.
Will the French government ban the iPhone if Apple refuses to allow a spy key, or will the “free” people of France confront their tyrannical goverment and stop the madness?
France is overdue for a revolution.
N.B. I am French.
I am particularly concerned by this decision, which will surely be followed by many other countries including dictatorships that want to kill the opposition parties.
Apple like all other phone manufacturers have to sell for a living and it will no longer refuse to open its phones and we will all be deprived of the privacy of our data. It’s a really dramatic situation.
Unfortunately, the terrorists will use proprietary software encryption that maintain the confidentiality of their data.
We will be deprived of the privacy of our personal data and terrorists will continue their crimes without problems.
I hate the FBI who opened Pandora’s box because even if Apple wins against the FBI (I’m not at all sure!) The damage is done.
You are right. Terrorists win and the other 99.99999999999 percent of the population loses, except members of the House and Senate who would mandate full encryption on their own devices.
This is certainly a win for terrorists since it will have no impact on them but degrades freedom and democracy which they hate so much.
Leftist governments.
The theme is common. Look how enlightened we are! Look how progressive we are! We’ve opened our borders to a willfully separatist, hostile, and violent subculture because we’re so liberal! We bend over backwards to appease Islam and they bitchslapped us for it! They attacked us! Not once, but twice and they’re promising more!
What shall we do?
Let’s weaken the security and privacy of all of our citizens, impose government restrictions on their ability to keep secrets. Nevermind it was our mismanagement of the country that placed them into danger. We can’t have people running around with information technology we cannot bypass. We’re the government.
The only place in the world where a Windows phone will outsell an iPhone. 🙂
For Apple lawyers, France first must prove there is terror data inside the target phone and saying it belongs to terrorist is not a prof enough since it could be their privets phone and not his work phone. So the o oy way to prove it contáis “terror data” si to unlock the iPhone first… Which will be imposible with out apple’s help 😉
Guess I will visit Italy this year.
That Rhone wine cruise is definitely out.
Apple almost certainly does not have the technical resources in France to do what the government wants. It is a sales organisation only. You can’t jail the country manager for being unable to write the code himself…
Yes, the French could ban Apple from opening stores on French soil – but not from the EU and, if this path was pursued, the Apple stores would simply be relocated across the borders.
It’s all rather silly.
Come on. These days government’s pass laws to be seen to be doing something.
They must know that since Snowdon, anyone with anything serious to hide uses additional third party encryption anyway, so there is no was that this will make anyone safer, except the crooks.