Home / Vol.6, n°2 / La protection des données personnelles en France

Synopsis

The notion of privacy, and more precisely the right to the protection of personal information, is recognized in provincial, national and international legislation, as well as in policies created by Web sites. It has been acknowledged that the unauthorized distribution of personal, identifying information, such as a person’s name, phone number, bank card, social security number, or even Internet address or e-mail, can be regarded as  breach to this person’s right to privacy. Traditional methods which protect one’s privacy, must adapt and extend their protection in the realm of cyberspace, since “ computers (...) must not affect human identity, human rights, privacy or individual and public rights ” (art. 1 of the French “ Informatique et Libertés ” January 6th 1978 law).

Although the importance of securing our privacy is agreed upon, it is necessary to question ourselves on the means that must be put forth to reach it. Shall we fall back on State legislation, on self-regulation or on co-regulation? This last notion « is not, for say, a new form of regulation », it simply draws from the collaboration of both the private and public sectors. This system of partnership attracted the attention of the French Government, and have influenced it's effort to adapt it's legislative framework to the information society, as is shown by the report « Du droit et des libertés sur l'Internet », recently handed to the Prime minister.

As a result, this article aims to illustrate the development of French legislation applied to the protection of privacy and, more precisely, to the personal information found on the World Wide Web. While keeping in consideration solutions put forth by the State or the private sector which have been utilized for the last two decades, we will study the first draft of the government's law concerning the protection of personal data, that aims to incorporate the European Directive européenne of October 24th 1995 into state legislation.