CNIL
The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés or CNIL (French pronunciation: [knil]) is an independent French administrative authority whose mission is to ensure that data privacy law is applied to the collection, storage, and use of personal data. Its existence was established by French loi n° 78-17, concerning computers, files and liberties (data privacy) and enacted into law on 6 January 1978. Since September 2011, the CNIL is currently presided over by Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.
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History[edit]
SAFARI was an attempt by the French government to create a centralized database of personal data. On March 21, 1974, an article in the newspaper Le Monde, "SAFARI ou la chasse aux Français (SAFARI; or, Hunting Frenchmen) brought public attention to the project. The newly named Interior Minister Jacques Chirac had to face the public uproar. Nominated following the events of May'68, Chirac succeeded Raymond Marcellin, who had been forced to resign in the end of February 1974 after having attempted to place wiretaps in the offices of the Canard enchaîné weekly newspaper. The massive popular rejection of this project promoted the creation of the CNIL.
At the beginning of 1980, when the CNIL began its main activities, news anchorman Patrick Poivre d'Arvor announced that the CNIL had registered 125,000 files.[1] By the end of 1980, Poivre d'Arvor counted 250,000 files (public and private).[1]
Composition and independence[edit]
The CNIL is composed of seventeen members from various government entities, four of whom are members of the parliament (Assemblée nationale and Sénat). Twelve of these members are elected by their representative organisations in the CNIL.
The CNIL's administrative authority status gives it total independence to select the actions that it will undertake. However, its power is limited and defined by law. The CNIL is financed by the budget of the French Republic.
| Presidents of the CNIL | Began | Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Pierre Bellet | December 5, 1978 | November 27, 1979 |
| Jacques Thyraud | 1979 | 1983 |
| Jean Rosenwald | 1983 | June 1984 |
| Jacques Fauvet | June 14, 1984 | 1999 |
| Michel Gentot | February 3, 1999 | January 7, 2004 |
| Alex Türk | February 3, 2004 | September 21, 2011 |
| Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin | September 21, 2011 |
Power[edit]
The CNIL registers the setup of information systems that process personal data on French territories. By September 2004, more than 800,000 declarations of such systems had been made. Additionally, CNIL checks the law to be applied in this domain as well as in about 50 annual 'control missions'. CNIL can warn organisations or people who are found to be noncompliant with the law, and also report them to the Parquet.
- 300 nominal information systems registered daily.
- 8000 phone calls handled each month.
- 4000 claims or requests for information received each year.
Regulation[edit]
The main principles for regulation of personal data processing are as follows (list not all-inclusive):
- all illegal means of data collection are forbidden;
- the aim of the data files must be explicitly stated;
- people registered in files must be informed of their rights, for example, for rectification and deletion of data on demand;
- finally, no decision about an individual can be decided by a computer.
The archival of sensitive information can result in a 5 year prison term and a €300,000 fine.
European and international contexts[edit]
Germany in 1971, Sweden in 1973, and France in 1978 were the first three States to vote for a "Computers and Liberty" law; these work with an independent control authority.
International, economic, and political structures have been created or assigned to apply CNIL directives. Amongst these are the Organisation pour la coopération et le développement économique (OCDE/EDCO) in 1980, the Council of Europe in 1981 and the United Nations (ONU) in 1990. In 1995, the European Commission voted through a directive in this manner. As of 2004, 25 countries have applied this directive.
Criticisms[edit]
The CNIL is the target of various criticisms, alleging its lack of action and tendency to support governmental legislation, forgetting its original aims of protecting data privacy and citizens' rights.[1] It is regularly criticised for its lack of administering proper sanctions to data privacy violations.[2] It was criticized, for instance, for having authorized "ethnic statistics", forbidden in official demographic statistics.[3]
See also[edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: CNIL |
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Chloé Leprince, Cnil: trente ans contre la "tyrannie de l'ordinateur", Rue 89, 6 January 2008 (French)
- ^ Thiébaut Devergranne, L'invariable bienséance de la CNIL
- ^ Chloé Leprince, Les statistiques ethniques au détour de la loi sur l'immigration, Rue 89, 17 September 2007 (French)
External links[edit]
- CNIL official web site (English)
- Site officiel de la CNIL (French)
- List of responsible entities in Europe 27
- La CNIL Detailed analysis of each of the CNIL's powers (French)
