French police arrest café owners who did not keep Wi-Fi data

In the French city of Grenoble, at least five cafe and restaurant operators were arrested for providing a Wi-Fi network in their establishment but not keeping the logs for at least a year as required by French law. took them into custody, writes the French newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles D’Alsace. BFM Business also writes about the arrests. The five are suspected of violating a 2006 law that requires hospitality owners to keep customer Wi-Fi logs for at least one year. The law has been in effect since 2006 and was passed in the fight against terrorism at the time. The law extends the definition of an internet service provider to ‘all persons who offer a connection that enables online communication via network access, including free of charge’. It does not matter whether it is the provider’s primary activity or secondary, such as with public Wi-Fi hotspots in restaurants and other establishments. According to French newspapers, it is rare for French police to raid for violations of these rules. The operators risk a year in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. The fine for legal persons amounts to a maximum of EUR 375,000. One of the administrators declares to Les Latest Nouvelles d’Alsace that he has never heard of the obligation to keep the logs. The information would also not have been included in training courses of the UMIH, the French catering trade union. The UMIH confirms to BFM that the subject is not part of the training to obtain the operating license, but members would be made aware of this requirement in other ways.