Apple’s dispute with the FBI continues, as the company doesn’t seem to be willing to give up and hack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, but in the meantime, other countries are preparing for similar cases that would involve breaking into devices.



France, which is one of the countries that have recently been targeted by terrorist attacks, is trying a different strategy as compared to the United States and wants to fine companies that do not comply with its requirements.
Hack your device or pay the fine A recent proposal by a French politician calls for the government to fine Apple no less than €1 million ($1.1 million) for each device that the company refuses to hack in order to help the police continue anti-terrorism investigations. This way, companies whose devices are being used by terrorists to plan attacks have no other option than to break into their products and hand over the data to investigators, the politician believes, explaining that no one would want to pay such a hefty fine.
“We are faced with a legal vacuum when it comes to data encryption, and it's blocking judicial investigations. Only money will force these extremely powerful companies like Apple and Google to comply. They are hiding behind a supposed privacy protection, but they're quick to make commercial use of personal data that they're collecting,” Yann Galut, French Socialist MP, was quoted as saying by French newspaper Le Parisien (via SlashGear).
This strategy isn’t at all surprising, as the French government had reportedly been in a similar position as the United States last year, when a total of 8 smartphones involved in anti-terrorism cases were not unlocked by their manufacturers because of privacy laws.
The exact models in questions are not known, but it’s believed that Apple and Samsung are two of the companies whose devices were supposed to be hacked.