Americanexpatinfrance's Blog

In the aftermath of the recent Christmas Day bombing attempt by a Nigerian radical on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, people are increasingly worried about security at airports. But there is controversy about the body scanners used by some airports, criticized by some as invading privacy.

However, the technology has improved and is less invasive, thus in my opinion for the price of a just a bit of privacy, more security is well worth it. Of course some will disagree with me, but that’s the beauty of debate and democracy. Ultimately the debate is privacy v. security and the balance we must strike.

France is adding to the debate with the recent move to introduce body scanners at airports, as reported by Reuters:

France will use body scanners at some of its airports, initially to search passengers heading to the United States, Transport Secretary Dominique Bussereau told Europe 1 radio on Friday.

Canada, the Netherlands and Britain have said they plan to use body scanners. Italy is considering them and Nigeria, the country of origin of the man who tried to blow up the Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam, will install them.

BBC News
France considers tax for Google, Yahoo and Facebook

Google and other net firms could be taxed under plans being considered by the French government.
A report, commissioned by the government, suggests firms such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook should pay a new tax on their online ad revenues.

The money could be used to fund legal alternatives for buying books, films and music on the internet.
But critics say the tax would be difficult to implement and Google says it could slow down innovation.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a tough line on the increasing dominance of digital content.
France has just introduced tough new legislation aimed at removing those who persistently download illegal content from the net.

It has also gone head-to-head with Google over its plans to digitise the world’s books, with a project to set up its own digital library financed by the government to the tune of £700m.

And it is considering a law which would give net users the option to have old data about themselves deleted.
The proposals for a tax on content is still very much in the early stages and there are few details of how it would exactly work.

Patrick Zelnik, who contributed to the report and is also the founder of the French president’s wife’s record label, hopes the idea will be taken on board across the EU. But Google is among those to have voiced opposition to the plan.

“We don’t think introducing an additional tax on internet advertising is the right way forward as it could slow down innovation,” said Olivier Esper, senior policy manager for Google France.

The better way to support content creation is to find new business models that help consumers find great content and rewards artists and publishers for their work.”