A Paris court ruled yesterday that the French telecommunications
code protects the contents of e-mail messages. It awarded damages
of 10,000 Francs (£910) to a student whose messages were monitored
by his university.
According to Agence France-Presse, a judge in a criminal court
said that interception of electronic messages is illegal except for
clearly defined reasons such as national security. He ordered that
the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry make a payment to
the Kuwaiti student and he fined three of its members of staff.
The School said it intercepted the student’s e-mail messages
because it suspected he was using the School’s system for personal
purposes. Its lawyer argued that once e-mails are entrusted to the
internet, they cease to be confidential.
If this case is followed in France, it will represent a
different position from that found in the UK. Employers in the UK
can monitor their e-mail systems under certain conditions and the
DTI and the Data Protection Commission recently issued guidance.
However, the government faced criticism because of inconsistencies
in the guidelines.
