The CNIL, guarantor of the personal data of the French, called to order on Tuesday the Ministry of Transformation and Public Service and the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the unsolicited sending of an email on the reform pensions to more than two million civil servants.
On January 26, 2.3 million public officials had received an email whose subject was Pension reform: Message from Stanislas Guerini to civil service agents, which referred to a video and a document justifying the contested reform project, traced the independent commission in a press release.
More than 1600 complaints had subsequently been addressed to the Cnil – an unprecedented number, according to it – and several public service unions, including the CGT, FO and Unsa, had denounced the operation, described as political propaganda by FO. According to Unsa, the email had been sent on the agents’ private address and not their professional address.
The CNIL in fact noted that the administration had used the Ensap filewhich reports to the Minister of the Economy and allows civil servants to access confidential documents concerning them, such as their pay slips.
Its restricted formation, responsible for pronouncing the sanctions, noted that the decree governing this digital platform had not been respected, because it only allows the administration to send emails to public officials informing them that a document is available. Above all, the Cnil points out that Ensap cannot serve as communication of a political nature, and that the minister’s video message aimed to convince people of the merits of the pension reform project, which had not yet been voted on.
In its deliberation of November 9, the restricted formation of the Cnil therefore issued a call to order against the two ministers to make them aware of the use of personal data held by the administration and decided to make public the sanction.
Contacted by AFP, the two ministers were not able to react immediately.
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