The Right to Have our Information Forgotten is a Fundamental Right

Here is an article (in French) written by Mr. Yann Padova, General Secretary of CNIL, the French Data Protection Agency. The title of the article, "Pas de liberté sans droit à l’oubli dans la société numérique," argues strongly that there cannot be any freedom in a digital society without the right to be forgotten.


Mr. Padova argues that all the information about us broadcasted on the web should have an expiration date. That would prevent HR directors, colleagues, your aunt, and just any other party curious about you to be able to see pictures of that wild weekend in Florida 10 years ago, when you and your friends played Monopoly all night long drinking non-diet cokes.

Sign against Edvige

Edvige is the lovely name of the not-so-lovely new French police database. The June 27 2008 law, was published in the French"Journal Officiel" on July 1st, thanks to the CNIL, even though the government had not wished it to be published. Instead, it was published at a very quiet time of the year, during the vacances...

The French police is not entitled to gather personal data on individuals who have reached their 13th birthday, and who are likely to upset public order (susceptibles de porter atteinte à l'ordre public). Data thus gathered can be, of course, their names, addresses, and photographs, but also their tax reports, the names of the persons they associated with. Data regarding their health and sexuality can be gathered "exceptionally", but the law does not say how the police is supposed to evaluate the exceptional that measure must be.

Thanks to the CNIL, the database will not be connected with others. Imagine a banker trying to figure out whether to extend a credit denying it because he has access to his health data, or discover that his client was arrested ten years ago for smoking a Gauloise inside a bar?

The press had informed the French citizens about that new law, but it has not succeeded creating the uproar necessary to withdraw it. The petition is here.

La CNIL et Facebook

La CNIL présente en bref sa position vis-à –vis de Facebook, et révèle qu’elle a adressé un courrier à Facebook afin d’obtenir des compléments d’informations sur les fichiers mis en œuvre, notamment des précisions sur les durées de conservations des données personnelles des membres de Facebook, des adresses IP traitées, et des emails des personnes invitées par un membre.

La CNIL est particulièrement concernée par l’utilisation des données personnelles des utilisateurs à des fins marketing.

"L’utilisateur n’est donc pas toujours conscient qu’en dévoilant des données sur sa vie privée, ses habitudes de vie, ses loisirs, voire ses opinions politiques ou religieuses, il permet aux sites de se constituer de formidables gisements de données susceptibles ainsi de provoquer de multiples sollicitations commerciales. "

Êtes-Vous Fiché?

La CNIL publie un guide pour aider les clients des banques et des organismes de crédit à comprendre et à faire respecter leurs droits. Le guide explique comment les banques utilisent les fichiers, et quels sont les droits des particuliers, droit d’accès et de rectification, droit d'opposition, ainsi que des modèles de lettres à utiliser pour exercer ces droits.