At the microphone of Europe 1, Marie-Laure Denis, the president of the National Commission for Data Protection (Cnil), talks about the possibility of setting up an application at the end of confinement to observe the movements of the population. It explains the necessary conditions guaranteeing the protection of French data.

INTERVIEW

After four weeks of confinement, some wonder about the ways out, while ensuring that precautions are taken to avoid a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic. If the shortage of protective masks and the poor performance of tests is at the heart of the debates, the idea of ​​a telephone application that would locate the patients affected by Covid-19 and analyze population movements is starting to take hold in public debate.

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Refusal is an "essential guarantee"

Guest of the morning of Europe 1, Marie-Laure Denis, the president of the National Commission of data processing and freedoms (Cnil), explained that the institution had not yet been seized of a project "because the government and the public authorities are at the stage of reflection", she explains. "But we are in the support. In particular from the research sector in particular to ensure that the solutions that would be implemented would be the most protective of privacy."

Asked about the conditions of such an application, the president of the Cnil said that we must "be able to refuse". "This is an essential guarantee for the French, it is that they are not forced to download this application and that means that there must be no consequences for refusal (...) constant law, volunteering is a red line, "she said. Marie-Laure Denis therefore explains that you have to know "what is the purpose of this application". "Is it to inform you or to check if you are well confined?" She wonders.

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An expiration date on the device?

"The other red line is the provisional nature of the application," continues Marie-Laure Denis, who asks from the launch of the device its expiration date. "The application must not last beyond the period which is necessary to combat the epidemic," she explains. "All of the data that has been collected should be deleted as soon as the health situation allows."

"You should not expect everything from an application of this type"

Another request related to data protection, the owner of the Cnil explains that the device must be anonymized. "Very concretely, when we download the application, it generates an identifier. No one will know that it is you who will receive a message on your phone. There is no personal data. This is an important condition", she explains.

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Marie-Laure Denis, who seems more favorable to a solution that would use Bluetooth technology than to continuous geolocation, nevertheless points out "that we should not expect everything from an application of this type". "We must not forget that barrier gestures, protective masks and tests are also important."