No access by a beneficiary to the personal data of a deceased person

In a decision dated 8 June 2016, the French Conseil d'Etat ruled on the definition of "person concernedThe "data subject", within the meaning of Article 2 of the 1978 French Data Protection Act (Loi informatique et libertés - LIL), considered that it could not include the rightful owner. of a deceased person.

For the record, Article 2 stipulates that the data subject is ".the one to which the data being processed relates".

However, only the data subject has the right to access, rectify or delete his or her personal data.

The Conseil d'Etat dismissed the appeal for misuse of power brought before it, thereby approving the decision of the CNIL (Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés) to refuse access to the heirs of a deceased person.

In this case, the heirs of a deceased Banque de France employee asked the bank to disclose records of telephone calls made from the deceased's telephone. When the Banque de France refused access, the heirs complained to the CNIL, which confirmed the refusal.

Read the decision