The CNIL innovation laboratory held a series of three workshops within the framework of the Partnership for an Open Government. A workshop was dedicated to syndicates, one to associations fighting for public liberties and one with open source participants. Exodus Privacy was invited on March 9th, 2022 to participate in the second workshop, alongside with other associations such as La Quadrature du Net, Noyb (None Of Your Business) and AccessNow among others.
Three main questions were asked during this half-day:
We were able to exchange with some CNIL members as well as with the associations who where present. A few ideas and propositions arose from these discussions. For instance, the publicity of notices and sanction decisions taken by the CNIL was discussed. The complaint system is seen as a black box where, as the plaintiff, we have little to no feedback on the action taken and the results. There was a proposition on priority themes: the CNIL decides every year on their priorities for controls, associations could be invited to take part in this decision. It has been suggested to involve the associations inside the CNIL via a dedicated bureau or even creating, inside the CNIL college, a civil society commissioner, whose role would be to defend the associations’ positions, in the same way a government commissionner currently defends the government actions during the CNIL plenary meetings.
Exodus Privacy welcomes this opening action from the CNIL, and we showed ourselves as willing to collaborate with public authorities, without of course putting our independence into question. This workshop was a first experience to allow associations to get more involved and it showed a huge variety of ideas and engagement possibilities. We hope actions will keep being taken in this direction.