French Lawmakers Scrambling Over News of NSA Surveillance (Le Monde, France)
"Digital Economy Minister Fleur Pellerin spoke of 'great concern for our citizens and
businesses,' but was hardly clear when asked her about France's possible
diplomatic response to this affair. ... France is torn between two requirements: promoting
the tremendous promise of exploiting personal data for business growth, while ensuring
its protection. ... MPs were told: 'We're dealing with personal data that has
an economic value ... this is recent. The current legal framework dates from
1995, a time when Internet didn't even exist.'"
On the firing line: France Minister for the Digital Economy Fleur Pellerin heard lots of questions but had few answers for members of the French Parliament on Tuesday, after news broke of the National Security Agency's global surveillance of the Internet and telephone calls.
Tuesday's National
Assembly debate on protecting personal data on the Internet was long planned
[June 11]. But the burgeoning case of Internet surveillance revealed on June 6
by The
Guardian and The Washington Post
gave it a special tone.
Questioned by a dozen lawmakers,
if Minister for the Digital Economy Fleur Pellerin
spoke of "great concern for our citizens and businesses," she was hardly
clear when MP Laure
de la Raudière (UMP) asked her about France's possible
diplomatic response to this affair.
More generally, although
concern and suspicion about surveillance networks was indeed present during MP's questions and answers with the minister, the participants
were obliged to address broader issues. The agenda for protecting personal data
is in fact jam-packed: a draft E.U. regulation on the subject is under study,
and the government has announced a Digital Technology Act of 2014, which should
include a focus on protecting personal data - a promise made by François
Hollande during his campaign for the presidency.
There is a consensus
among lawmakers and the executive that personal data regulation is outdated. In
findings summarized by Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin,
president of the National Commission on Data Processing and Freedoms (CNIL), MPs were told: "We're
dealing with personal data that has an economic value ... this is recent. The legal
framework dates from 1995 [an E.U. directive], a time when Internet didn't even
exist." Pellerin also pointed out the "vague"
nature of the directive, in particular in its geographical scope.
LITTLE ROOM FOR E.U. MANEUVER
Given this situation,
the room for maneuver for national lawmakers on an issue for which borders have
little meaning, is exceedingly small. The digital economy minister got the
hint, which explains why she said, "the E.U. regulation will impact the Digital
Technology Act of 2014." Lionel Tardy, MP from
Haute-Savoie (UMP), regrets that the parliamentary
debate came so late "in the session" when E.U. negotiations are so
far advanced.
The French government
is also opposed to Europe on one essential point: the draft regulation
currently provides that a citizen wishing to assert their rights vis-à-vis
their personal data must turn to the regulator of the territory where the offending
company originates. This is a provision that would encourage businesses to locate
where the regulator has the fewest
resources, warned MP Patrice Martin-Lalande (UMP). The French government advocates a measure
whereby citizens may turn to their local Commission on Data Processing and Freedoms
office.
INTENSE LOBBYING
Lawmakers and the CNIL chairman
have also repeatedly emphasized the intensity of the lobbying that takes place in
Brussels around the framework of the draft regulation on personal data.
One of the concessions lobbyists
are trying to acquire beyond the scope of the regulation, particularly those of
the Internet giants, has to do with "depersonalized" data, that is to
say, free of the user's name. For Isabelle Attard, European
MP for Calvados (Europe Ecology
- The Greens), another point of tension is that connecting a real name to a
database containing telephone conversations is like "child's play"
and that any promise of anonymity is "dishonest." CNIL President Falque-Pierrotin also warned against an "unwinding of
personal data protection."
ECONOMIC NEED
France is also torn
between two requirements: promoting the tremendous promise of exploiting
personal data for business growth, while ensuring its protection. "One
must protect personal rights while not interfering with the economy," concluded
MP Charles Angelo Ginesy (UMP) of the Alpes-Maritimes.
CNIL President Falque-Pierrotin, for her part, doesn't seem to know how to
resolve the dilemma. "European companies should not be disadvantaged in
relation to others on the pretext that they obey the law, but citizens' data
should not be transferred anywhere," she explained.
So when one after the other,
socialist MPs Laurence Dumont and then Christian Paul raised the possibility of
amending the Constitution to protect personal data, the digital economy minister
judged the idea "complicated," fearing "solidifying principles
that would prevent business innovation in a world where technology is changing rapidly."
SOME TRACKS
Ideas, fuzzy for most, were
nevertheless raised during the debate. For example, Patrice Martin-Lalande put forward the "comparative advantage"
that could draw the attention of consumers to French and European companies, who
would be more respectful of privacy than their competitors.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Isabelle
Falque-Pierrotin suggested that the right to portability, that is to say, the
ability for users to recover data left on a particular service, a provision
under the E.U. regulation, be integrated into the Digital Technology Act of
2014 to "reintroduce a form of competition." She also advocated that digital
technology education - "the first line of protection and control" - be
declared a national priority.
