France is trying to pass an amendment that could signify bad news for the technological giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) and all its supporters. The bill states that if a tech company failed to provide access to data in connection with terrorism investigations they would be subject to a fine of $385,000 and possible imprisonment for the executives of the company. The law, however, may not pass because it is still up for debate. This is an obvious move in light of the iPhone encryption issue.
France’s lower house of parliament has already passed the bill as it gains support from the right-leaning nationalists but the governing socialist party that of President Francois Hollande is against it. The full bill includes sentencing guidelines for terrorists and is part of a broader bill aimed at organized crime and terrorism will be voted on in the National Assembly on March 8.
On the off chance that it passes it would then need to go over and pass in the Senate and finally signed into law by the President Mr Francois Hollande. It will be a bitter pill to swallow for the President as he and his party are not in support of the bill.
France, one of the countries hardest hit by the terrorist attacks of ISIS, are trying to combat terrorism across the country but this latest move might be seen as a violation of privacy rather than an act to fight terrorism. Since the November 15 attacks the French government has been in talks to find out how to amend its terrorism and criminal penal regulations.
The debate about encryption, national security and privacy have gone up a notch after Apple’s refusal to allow the FBI to have a backdoor to one of the iPhones in the FBI’s hands which was owned by Farooq Rizwan, who was one of the shooters in San Bernardino, California last December.
Apple, which has seen support from other giants in the technological business including Twitter, Google and Microsoft argues that creating a backdoor would be a dangerous precedent and would violate the trust they have with their customer base.
In January, the National Assembly failed to pass an amendment that would have forced technological companies to build encryption backdoor into their devices to allow the French government to have one step forward and see what attackers were planning on doing before they did it. An emotional reaction to terrorist attacks you can say but people’s safety is always the first priority.
This new amendment singles out smartphone makers and cell phone carriers. Debate on whether if the backdoor technology is developed whose hands would it eventually fall in is still going on.
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