Skip to main content
France - United States

French rights groups target internet giants over Prism snooping

French rights groups are to launch legal action aiming to establish the role of internet giants in the worldwide spying scandal exposed by former US security contractor Edward Snowden. They have Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Paltak, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple in their sights.

Reuters
Advertising

The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights League were to file a “complaint against X” in Paris on Thursday. 

Under French law such a complaint allows a wide-ranging inquiry without naming an individual or organisation.

It aims to establish whether "the companies made their servers available to the FBI and NSA" for collection of personal data, , one of their legal team, Emmanuel Daoud, told France Info radio.

They may not have told “the whole truth” when they denied knowledge of the Prism programme, exposed by Snowden in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

If collusion is proved, the companies could face prosecution in France for violating data protection and privacy rules.

Snowden is currently holed up in Moscow airport to avoid charges in the US.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.