ISPs fight France's data retention law.

• Position: WEB

In late February, the French government updated its 2004 Legal Regime for E-Commerce Trust (LCEN), the French implementation of the European Union's (EU) E-Commerce Directive.

France's updated law states that Internet access and hosting providers must retain data on their users and customers, including financial transaction details, usernames, passwords, addresses, and phone numbers, for at least one year. These details must also be provided to government agencies and law enforcement upon request.

More than 20 technology firms, including eBay, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, have joined the French Association of Community Internet Services (ASIC) to ask that this decree be repealed, according to InformationWeek. The ASIC protects the interests of Web 2.0 member companies doing business in France.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Information Week reported that the ASIC has filed a petition on behalf of more than 20 technology firms to France's highest administrative court, the Conseil d'Etat, "challenging the cost required to store large amounts of data for a long duration, charging that the data-gathering requirements exceed what's specified in the...