GendNotes, the new gendarmes application, challenged at the Council of State

Last February, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, signed a decree concerning GendNotes, a mobile note-taking application intended for gendarmes, a computer version of the handwritten notebook , specifies the gendarmerie. But this Tuesday, June 2, two associations filed an appeal to the Council of State: Internet Society France which defends the rights of Internet users and HES (Homosexualities and socialisms) for those of homosexuals. Both denounce the dangers for the privacy of citizens.

Sensitive data entered

According to Nicolas Chagny, president of the Internet Society France, the application is presented in a somewhat simplistic way as a digitization of the policeman’s notebook . But the state has indicated that the gendarmes’ files on this application may contain sensitive data . According to the president of the association, this means that data such as political opinion, union membership or sexual orientation may be included .

Fear of a “gay file”

It is for this reason that the HES association is part of the appeal. Lennie Nicollet, of the association, does not take offense: We cannot accept that there is some kind of homo file return . In addition, these files will be accessible by a number of people of authority, including mayors if necessary. How to prevent this data from being used by far-right mayors , worries the HES member. But for the gendarmerie, the application will allow collect sensitive data when necessary, especially in the case of homophobic offenses, racist…

Interconnection is a problem

But the fundamental problem of this application is its ability to interconnect , explains Nicolas Chagny. Indeed, the data present in this file will be able is pour out in other digital files. There could be a misuse of purpose , specifies the president of the association. One could imagine that it is interconnected with, for example, the national file which makes it possible to manage foreign nationals or the file of criminal records … .

Too vague a decree?

The gendarmerie specifies that this decree has been submitted to the CNIL , the guardian of the individual freedoms of the French in the face of computer files and processing. With this appeal, the two associations hope that the Council of State recognize that this decree is too vague, that it does not specify enough who has access to files, data retention, types of fields filled, what uses are intended …

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