That would cover data on visas, potential militant threats within the border-free Schengen area, refugees and airline passengers, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.
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He and his German counterpart said they’re pushing for a Europe-wide policy limiting encryption to be discussed at an European Union summit next month.
Privacy advocates argue that encryption is essential to online security, notably for banking transactions.
Police need better tools to tap phones, Cazeneuve said on Tuesday, calling for new rules for both operators inside and outside the EU.
Cazeneuve said at a press conference that French police had arrested as many people for terror links in the first half of 2016 as for the whole of past year.
The ministers did not describe specific solutions, but said they want European Union leaders to discuss encryption next month during a wider discussion of security issues at a summit in Bratislava, Slovakia.
But they didn’t elaborate on how exactly companies should limit encryption, and Cazeneuve acknowledged that his government doesn’t even have any interlocutors at some companies.
Investigators in several countries claim that terror groups now use less-known messaging apps which offer encryption to protect the users’ data. Islamic State extremists are among its many users-including a 19-year-old who attacked a Catholic church in Normandy last month and allegedly posted about his impending plans on the app.
Telegram says on its website that it blocks terrorist-related public channels but doesn’t intervene in private chats.
A USA -based tech lobby group, CCIA, which represents companies such as Facebook and Google, said it was anxious about the proposals.
France and Germany – where nerves are raw following a wave of attacks on civilians this summer, including two claimed by Islamic State – are also seeking closer links between the continent’s databases of personal information.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, left, hugs French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve after a joint media conference in Paris, Tuesday, Aug.23, 2016.
Cazeneuve said the same number of terror suspects had been detained in France between January and the end of June as in the whole of 2015. “It’s imperative that police have a single interface”.
French security forces in 2016 have arrested 165 people in the fight against terrorism, of whom 91 were placed under investigation and 63 jailed, according to Interior Ministry figures released at the beginning of August.(ANSAmed).
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Last week the French government held a special security meeting to discuss increasing protection measures at schools after a series of deadly extremist attacks in the country.
