France could be poised to fine Apple €1 million for not decrypting one of its smartphones if a proposed amendment to French law is approved.
The proposed law could impose fines on US companies Apple and Google if they refuse to open access into smartphones which belong to terrorists.
Last year, eight phones tied in some way to terror attacks in France were not able to be decrypted by police and the information remained inaccessible, according to Le Parisien.
Socialist MP Yann Galut said on Monday that companies like Apple and Google should be fined up to €1 million when they do not cooperate in such cases.
"We are faced with a legal vacuum when it comes to data encryption, and it's blocking judicial investigations" he told Le Parisien.
"Only money will force these extremely powerful companies like Apple and Google to comply," he said.
"They are hiding behind a supposed privacy protection, but they're quick to make commercial use of personal data that they're collecting," he said.
He stressed that his proposal would only apply to people under investigation and not an intrusion on public privacy.
Apple is currently fighting a US court order to unlock the encrypted iPhone of a gunman whose rampage left 14 dead in San Bernardino, California last December.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has come out in support of Apple, warning that creating so-called “backdoors” into encrypted information “leads to very, very bad consequences which always end up harming users”.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said Monday that he was "pretty sympathetic" with Apple's quandary.
