Europe, Shaken by Paris Attacks, Weighs Security With Privacy Rights

As France comes to terms with its deadliest domestic attack since World War II, attention has quickly turned attention to whether European governments need to reassess how they collect, manage and use people’s digital footprint. Already, European politicians are mulling new rules that would allow them to share airline passenger data across the 28-member bloc to identity potential terrorists. And new legislation in France and Britain is expected to give intelligence agencies further access to people’s digital lives. That includes allowing French officials to tap phones and access e-mails without judicial review and forcing Internet providers in Britain to potentially hold individuals’ communication data for a year so that agencies can review the records when necessary.

Yet European data protection advocates and lawmakers say the strong rules that limit how companies can handle information will likely remain in place, highlighting how Europe has separated how companies handle people’s data from the needs of governments to protect national security. The region’s tough privacy rules are enshrined as a fundamental right on par with freedom of expression.