Google, eBay Join Fight Against French Data Demands

Europe’s approach to privacy is notoriously scattershot, with the media and users often reacting — or overreacting — to a constant stream of new rules, regulations and proposals. Sometimes there’s more heat than light, but at other points the consternation seems justified. Take the example of recent uproar in France, where last month the government introduced new data retention rules that have Internet users and businesses up in arms. Under the new system, sites must keep a record of every visitor’s username, email address and password for a year. Plus they have to keep a file of every time the user interacted with the site, and what they did. Oh, and if they've got them, their postal addresses and phone numbers, too. All of it, for 12 months.