National commission of data processing and freedoms [ CNIL ]

National commission of data processing and freedoms [ CNIL ]

National commission of data processing and freedoms [ CNIL ], independent French administrative authority, whose mission is to take care of the respect of the law of January 6, 1978 relating to data processing, the files and freedoms guaranteeing the respect of the personal freedoms by the publicly-owned establishments or private having automated data files.

Composed of seventeen members, the CNIL was instituted in 1978 to answer the development of the data processing, which authorizes from now on the setting in data memory, concerning with the individuals and the private life. The legislator, by the data-processing law and freedoms, wanted to guarantee that data processing could not, to in no case, to attack the human identity, to the humans right, the private life, the personal freedoms or public.

The holders of data files must obligatorily declare with the CNIL the treatments which they operate and to give the characteristics of them (three hundred and forty thousand files were declared in 1993). Each citizen, under the terms of the law, has the right to reach information relating to it in the public files or deprived, and can obtain correction from it, if they are false, or suppression, if they are against the law. The CNIL, holding supervisory powers, makes sure that the automated treatment of information is carried out in accordance with the law. It also informs the people of their rights and obligations and can seize justice, when it notes an infringement with the legislation.