Paris (AFP)

Through a series of guarantees for the protection of individual freedoms, the National Assembly approved Wednesday night the experimentation planned by the government of data collection on social networks to detect tax fraud.

MEPs approved at first reading Article 57 of the draft state budget for 2020 providing for this experiment for three years, within the tax administration and customs. It will be able to collect and exploit freely available data on social networks and digital platforms (eg Facebook, Le Bon Coin, Twitter, etc.).

Currently, "the car of the thief goes faster than the police car of the" fiscal, who must now "use new technologies," said the Minister of Public Accounts Gerald Darmanin.

According to him, this means moving from "manual" data research, already practiced by tax auditors, to "professional" research, thanks to artificial intelligence and the use of algorithms, as in the United States or in Spain.

The minister cited the example of the mail order tobacco sale via Facebook: the state, which wants to defend the tobacconists, currently has "the weapons against the physical traffic but not on the social networks".

In an opinion issued in September, the Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés (CNIL) had expressed reservations about the initial project of experimentation, arguing that it was "likely to undermine the freedom of opinion and 'expression' of the persons concerned.

The original version of Article 57 has also aroused the outcry of most opposition groups, Republicans as the left pointing the risk of a "generalized surveillance" of the population.

"You pull a little more on the noose that encloses our individual freedom," launched the government Michel Castellani (Liberties and territories).

Reluctance persisted even in the ranks of the majority, Philippe Latombe (MoDem) criticizing a "trawling data" and a problem of "mesh size of the net".

"There will be no rise in criteria other than what we put," said Mr. Darmanin, while Emilie Cariou (LREM) recalled that the rights of the defense would be respected in the context of the tax audit s 'Next.

The minister was favorable to several adjustments already adopted by the deputies in committee, to better frame experimentation and achieve a "balance" between "protection of individual freedoms and the fight against fraud".

The deputies thus restricted the field of experimentation to the research of the occult activities and the fraudulent tax domiciliations. On this point, "it is not Mr. and Mrs. Everybody" but people "organizing their tax domiciliation abroad while taking advantage of French public services," said Mr. Darmanin.

The collection of information will also be limited to content "manifestly made public" by users of platforms, said the deputies.

In addition, the processing and preservation of the collected data can not be outsourced by the State. However, "private providers may help us build the algorithm," Darmanin said.

The administration must destroy at the latest five days after their collection data collected sensitive or unrelated to the offenses sought. The other data should be analyzed at most within thirty days and destroyed if they do not appear relevant.

The CNIL will be seized of the decree necessary for the implementation of the experimentation.

Finally, an interim assessment will be carried out after eighteen months.

© 2019 AFP