Finance law 2024: the government wants to continue monitoring social networks to fight fraud

2023-12-21 17:00:08

Bercy will be able to continue to hunt down fraudsters on online sales platforms and cast its net on social networks. The finance bill for 2024, definitively adopted Thursday, December 21, extends for two years and expands an experiment which, since 2021, has allowed the Ministry of the Economy to mass retrieve online data to detect several forms of fraud.

The world obtained the “final assessment” of experimentation, which provides new details on a device which sparked controversy when it was adopted. This report reveals the first results – timid but judged “encouraging” by the administration –, its cost and the exact method used. He also explains to the legislator the need, according to Bercy, for its enlargement.

The law adopted at the end of 2019, despite the significant reservations of the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (CNIL), entrusted this mission to the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) and customs. The tax authorities have gone looking for hidden activities, for example a company supposed to be closed which continues its activity behind the backs of the administration or a professional who has not registered his company with the tax authorities. Customs were interested in the illicit sale of tobacco and firearms.

Even if the law was to allow the administration to recover data from all kinds of online platforms, it did not risk using social networks, such as Facebook, due to limits set by the CNIL and the Council constitutional. The tax authorities and customs therefore focused on advertisements posted on online sales sites, such as Leboncoin or tourist rental platforms.

Also read our decryption (2021): When the tax authorities can monitor you on social networks

Aspiration of ads on online sales sites

Bercy began its data aspiration salvos in 2021. During the first, carried out by the tax authorities in July that year, 13,227 advertisements were recovered (for hairdressing, moving, plumber services, etc.). During subsequent waves, the tax administration became interested in car sales, which represent a much greater financial stake, as well as in furnished rentals. In total, as of June 2023, seventeen collections had been organized by the DGFiP and customs.

Once the advertisements have been vacuumed, they are classified and cleaned to extract the relevant information, necessary in particular for the identification of the professional: user name, telephone details or Siren number, the company identifier. As the project progresses, State services enrich this information by requesting additional information from Internet access providers, or even directly from the platforms.

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