The European Commissioner for the French Internal Market, Thierry Breton, has asked several telecommunications companies to provide data on the geolocation of the population. The Government will convert these data into anonymous data and has announced that they will be used to determine where the medical supplies would be needed for the coming days.

The information received will make it possible to find out where the infections occurred, as well as the people with whom contacts have been established, in order to determine who has been able to spread the virus. Since Europe is responsible for the use of data, Brussels will be responsible for processing it illegally.

Need to change the law

Orange leader Stéphane Richard has stated that this data can also be used to measure containment success. In this regard, he explained that the information contained in the current legislation should be deleted within one year and that they would like to retain it for two years.

The Government has set up a committee of inquiry to analyse the legitimacy of the practices being carried out. The Minister of Health and Solidarity, Olivier Veran, has spoken out against the government’s proposal.

Israel as a leader

France is not the first state to control citizens’ mobile data, nor is it the first to do so. The United States has joined companies like Facebook and Google to put this possibility on the table. And Israel has already agreed to spy on citizens, not only on mobile phones, but also on other devices used to "combat terrorism". The Basque Government itself has also announced that it will be able to control the movements of citizens in the new application that it will install in the Basque Country to deal with the coronavirus.