Region: France

The European Court of Justice has said that EU law does not explicitly ban member state authorities from ordering delisting requests outside the bloc, but stopped short of decreeing that the right to be forgotten applies worldwide.

24 September 2019

The European Data Protection Supervisor has joined the European Commission in largely backing national governments’ use of indiscriminate bulk interception, but said retention periods must be limited and some categories of data should be excluded from the regimes.

10 September 2019

The Belgian, French and UK governments have rejected arguments by NGOs that intelligence agencies’ collection of bulk communications data should be subject to EU law, arguing that to do so would endanger national security and their ability to prevent crime.

09 September 2019

A Canadian filmmaker’s attempt to force internet service provider Orange to hand over details of IP address owners it identifies as having illegally downloaded its films has backfired, after a French court found its attempt to track the illegal downloads fell foul of data protection rules.

05 September 2019

An NGO and a privacy-focused messaging platform have asked a court to urgently overturn the French data regulator’s decision to delay the implementation of its new cookie guidelines.

06 August 2019

Switzerland’s highest court has ruled that the Federal Tax Administration can share the identities of customers of Swiss bank UBS with French authorities.

30 July 2019

France’s data regulator has fined insurer Active Assurances €180,000 – around 2% of the company’s annual turnover – marking the fourth time the regulator has heavily penalised basic data security failings in the last two years.

25 July 2019

In updated cookie guidance by France’s data regulator, browsing a website can no longer be taken as consent to use the tracking technology.

22 July 2019

French privacy group La Quadrature du Net has asked the country’s highest administrative court to annul a decree by the prime minister allowing the government to use facial recognition technology in a digital identity app.

18 July 2019

Featured in Country surveys 2019

16 July 2019