Yes, as indexing these sites is not prohibited by law in principle. In fact, this would be hard to prohibit, since a site may be on the Deep Web simply because it is not referenced by “normal” search engines like Google. A site’s presence on the Deep Web is not necessarily indicative of illegal content.

Yet this is a legitimate question in that authorities and the courts may deem that the search engine has facilitated the violation.

In France, however, search engines fall under the same category as hosts and thus bear limited responsibility, which means they are not required to sort the indexed content based on legality.

According to CJUE case law, the activity of the information society service provider must be “of a mere technical, automatic, and passive nature,” implying that the service provider “has neither knowledge of nor control over the information which is transmitted or stored.”

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Excerpt from Aleph’s document on the legal framework.

Contact us to receive our full document on the legal framework!

In partnership with the SHITF avocats law firm

No, it is perfectly legal to search for information.

However, to remain lawful in France, online searches for data breaches (Recherche sur Internet de Fuites d’Informations — RIFI) must follow a number of rules and regulations.

The first is the Godfrain Law under the French Penal Code.

Service providers that scan the web for data breaches must ensure that their search methods do not compromise automated data processing systems (which would be punishable by law).

In particular:

• No vulnerabilities may be exploited to search for information;
• No security measures may be deliberately breached or circumvented (no passwords may be cracked, and no default passwords may be used to get into the system, etc.);
• Only information that is accessible without bypassing security measures may be collected.

This means that Aleph’s searches do not fall under the scope of criminal acts punishable under articles 323-1 and following of the Penal Code.

It is only an offence when “fraudulently accessing or remaining in all or part of an automated data processing system.”

Of course, Aleph only identifies, collects, and analyses data that has already been made public on specific sites.

However, the conditions in which this data is obtained may raise other questions.

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Excerpt from Aleph’s document on the legal framework.

Contact us to receive our full document on the legal framework!

In partnership with the SHITF avocats law firm