Non-compliant canvassing: a reporting service is open

Any person contacted by a candidate or a political party in the context of the departmental and regional elections may report conduct that they deem to be non-compliant on the platform Reporting Elections . The CNIL will then be able to take the necessary measures with the actors concerned: checks, corrective measures, denunciation to the public prosecutor's office.

Parties and candidates in elections are obliged to respect the rules on the protection of personal data in their political communication. In particular, they must inform voters about:

• the identity and contact details of the data controller;
• the purposes of the processing;
• the recipients of the data;
• the length of time that this data is kept.

The CNIL reminds candidates and parties of the legal framework for the use of data in the field of electoral political communication and helps them to put in place good practices such as:

• indicate in each of their communications, who they are, how they got the name or address that enabled them to contact the voter (for example, whether the voter has already subscribed to a newsletter) and what the data collected will be used for;
• indicate, from the first communication message, how and with whom voters within their group or party can exercise their rights with regard to the protection of personal data. They systematically add a link to unsubscribe from the prospecting lists in their email communications and a “STOP PROSPECTION” device for their SMS campaigns. Applications for deregistration must be processed as soon as possible, and at the latest within one month;
• delete files that have been specifically created for elections once they are completed, and regardless of the outcome.