French government presents its Digital Strategy
The State secretary in charge of digital economy and innovation, Axelle Lemaire, presented the government’s digital strategy. This mostly responds to European developments and gives a good indication of the government’s position on discussions at EU level.
This digital strategy is currently being finalised. It will be accompanied by a digital bill that is to be first presented at the end of June. Most aspects of this strategy and bill will take into account the conclusions of a public consultation held by the Digital Council.
400 pages that you’ll find here: ▻http://contribuez.cnnumerique.fr/sites/default/files/media/CNNum--rapport-ambition-numerique.pdf
Key points of interest:
– Net neutrality: the Government pushes for a law “before an agreement is found at European level”, that would define a strict net neutrality principle while “making innovation possible”.
– Platforms regulation: Europe “must define new obligations for digital platforms”, but France would envisage regulations to guarantee a “non-biased information and clear referencing practices”.
– Internet rights: the Government will “work with the Council of Europe on a Charter of citizens’ rights and digital”, which would be “a protocol to the Charter of Fundamental Rights (sic)”. This could include prohibiting to cut internet access to users.
– Personal data: the Government will present a legislative proposal “before the entry into force of the European regulation, in 2018 at the earliest” and promote a “French vision which should influence negotiations in Brussels”. This would include a “right to data portability”: the possibility to transfer a user’s data from one platform to another (pictures, info, messages…).
– Open data: State-owned companies such as EDF and SNCF should share data of “general interest”, in order to foster the development of new services (SNCF recently announced it will open its data under a freemium model, with fees for bigger clients). The State would also open its data to businesses through APIs.
– Cyber-security: non-legislative actions in order to tackle cyber-crime.
More :
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Internet: Valls dévoile la “stratégie numérique” du gouvernement
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