France Outlaws Hashed Passwords

An anonymous reader writes: Storing passwords as hashes instead of plain text is now illegal in France, according to a draconian new data retention law. According to the BBC, "[t]he law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers. This includes users' full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords. The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded." If the law survives a pending legal challenge by Google, Ebay and others, it may well keep some major services out of the country entirely.

no big deal

[vxir]

No problem! I'll just use a hash AS my password! uhhh...wait a minute...

Take aim; shoot self in foot.

[Roobles]

This is what happens when people make laws to govern technology they don't understand. Even if they are motivated by an insatiable lust for power and control, I can't believe they would support this law if they understood how much it could personally hurt them. Funny thing is, if there's a rise in identity theft afterwards, they'll probably use it as an example of justifying these kind of measures.

Hmmm

[WrongSizeGlass]

The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded.

Don't they mean surrendered to the authorities?

I suppose they also have some regulations regarding protecting user data in case of security breaches. Though this isn't the IT textbook definition of 'collision' I think it can be applied nonetheless.