Data

A report released last week by France’s national statistics institute show that the year-on-year rise in country’s mortality rate during the height of the Covid-19 virus epidemic was proportionately more than twice as high among inhabitants born abroad, and notably those from sub-Saharan Africa and also Asia, than for the population born in France. While the data paints an incomplete picture, it convincingly illustrates, as seen in studies in other European countries and in the US, that among populations it has been ethnic minorities which have been the most at risk from the coronavirus.    

France's constitutional court has given the go-ahead for the tax administration to check scial media users' profiles, posts and pictures for evidence of undisclosed income, but that that password-protected content was off-limits and that  only public information pertaining to the person divulging it online can be targeted.

France's data protection agency CNIL has told messaging app WhatApp it must cease automatic sharing of users' data, such as phone numbers, with parent company Facebook within a month. 

Extracts from more than 22,000 pages of data on six Scorpene submarines France is building for India's navy were published by an Australian daily.

The CNIL said Microsoft was collecting 'excessive' amounts of data not needed for the software to operate, and browser spying 'without consent'.

Personal details of 112,000 police officers uploaded to Google Drive two weeks after two officers were murdered at their home by a jihadist.

The trade deficit deteriorated sharply in February to 5.2 billion euros, as imports surged on delivery of inputs for the French car and aerospace industries.

Manufacturing output surged to 2.6 percent year-on-year to January, while the 82,300 jobs created last year was highest since the crisis of 2007.

The French finance minister has denied UK government claims that it was refused permission to use leaked bank files to bring prosecutions.

The French telecommunications giant says hackers stole data on about 1.3 million clients or potential customers in last month's attack.

Newspaper report suggests the former state-owned French telecoms giant has been sharing information with security services for many years.

Germany's Angela Merkel to discuss with Francois Hollande a European solution to avoid emails and other information passing through the US.

Earlier this month, the French parliament gave its definitive approval to a bill of law fixing France’s defence programmes, objectives and budget for the period 2014-2019. When it was presented earlier this year, this wide-ranging legislation drew headlines over its sweeping cuts in defence jobs and spending. More recently, it caused controversy over its introduction of real-time monitoring of internet and mobile phone communications by police and intelligence agencies. However, as Louise Fessard reports, its plans for mass surveillance don’t stop there: it contains a provision, largely overlooked, that will see the creation of a database that records details of all airline passengers travelling to and from France, based on the ‘Passenger Name Record’  system which uses profiling techniques that are the target of fierce criticism from civil liberties bodies, not least the the European Data Protection Supervisor, the EU’s watchdog for the protection of personal privacy.