I agree with you, Europe has different countries and some of them are not in E.U. so different rules may apply.
However, since France is in E.U. what you describe should be illegal. The article you refer to is 15yrs old btw....
The "article" is published by the French data protection authority. They update them when regulations change. They didn't update this one. Make a deduction, now.
> However, since France is in E.U. what you describe should be illegal.
What's the regulation or directive you're talking about?
