An interesting document, created by a Working Group of the French Senate, has come to my attention.

It's titled "Fifteen Recommendations to Better Guarantee the Right to Privacy in the Digital Age" (153 pages, in French).

I've thrown together a quick translation of the Fifteen Recommendations, as I thought the list would find it interesting (copied below).

Some of the Recommendations I found pretty wild (see #4, 7, 10, and 12); some wildly interesting (# 1 and 14).

The full report in French may be obtained at the URL http://www.senat.fr/rap/r08-441/r08-4411.pdf

Warmest regards.

Fred
--------------------------------------
Frederic J. Grevin
Deputy Commissioner and Chief Information Officer
The City of New York,
Department of Records
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Land phone: 212.788.8615
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FIFTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS TO BETTER GUARANTEE THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The Senate [France]. The Commission on Constitutional Laws, Legislation, Universal Suffrage, Rules and General Administration. The Working Group on the Right to Privacy [literally, "respect of the right to a private life"-I have generally translated "private life" as 'privacy'] in the Digital Age.


TO MAKE OF THE CITIZEN A FREE AND ENLIGHTENED "DIGITAL MAN", PROTECTING HIS OWN DATA

Recommendation 1:  Reinforce in school programs the priority given to sensitization to questions of protection of privacy and personal data.

Recommendation 2:  Promote the organisation and deployment of a large-scale information campaign for the purpose of sensitizing citizens to the stakes relative to privacy and the protection of data in the digital age, as well as to inform them of their rights under the "information and liberties" law.

Recommendation 3:  Rapidly promote the creation of labels [tags?] identifying and assigning a value to software, applications and systems which offer stronger guarantees for the protection of personally-identifiable information.


REINFORCE THE RESOURCES AND THE LEGITIMACY OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON INFORMATION AND LIBERTIES (CNIL)

Recommendation 4:  Set up a small royalty fee payable by large organisations, public and private, which handle personally-identifiable information.

Recommendation 5:  Decentralize the activities of the CNIL by setting up inter-regional sites.

Recommendation 6:  Reinforce the expertise and control capabilities of the CNIL.

Recommendation 7:  Mandate a Chief Personal Information Officer in all public and private entities of more than fifty paid employees.

Recommendation 8:  Open to the public the meetings and the decisions of the [not sure what is meant by "formation restreinte"-I infer it means an inner circle of decision-makers] CNIL.


COMPLETE THE CURRENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Recommendation 9:  Sustain the current trend toward the creation of international standards relative to personally-identifiable information.

Recommendation 10:  Affirm without ambiguity that an IP address constitutes personally-identifiable information.

Recommendation 11:  Create, at the least, an obligation to notify the CNIL of security breaches involving personally-identifiable information. 

Recommendation 12:  Bring under a single authority-the CNIL-the authorisation and control of video surveillance.

Recommendation 13:  Reserve to legislators the exclusive right to create a police case file [I believe-but am not certain-this refers to an anti-terrorism case file]

Recommendation 14:  Consider the creation of a right to multiple anonymous identities ["hétérononymat"] and of a right to forgetfulness. [note: the text of the report states, partially, "each individual could create multiple alternative identities, distinct from the creator. In order to ensure this right does not lead to infractions, the alternative identities could be registered with a managing organisation. For example, in case of infractions, the judicial system could require the true identity of the person." See page 107].

Recommendation 15:  Add to the text of our constitution the concept of a right to privacy.

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