The regulations relating to personal data conflict with the needs of the intelligence, justice and police services, and the arbitration between the two has been brought to the French Council of State.
Indeed, it is customary that these services ask telecommunications providers to keep in a generalized and indiscriminate manner the data relating to our personal or professional communications, in order to meet their preventive or probative needs.
However, these steps are contrary to the European legal framework on the protection of personal data, which still allows this storage in the name of safeguarding national security if the State faces a serious, real and current threat. In addition, it must be limited to certain identified persons or to a specific geographical area.
France is asking its Council of State to rule on this delicate arbitration in assembly judgment, which should happen in the coming days.
