How should the protection of personal data in scientific research be efficiently ensured ? This is the main question of this dissertation. Important issue at a time personal data processing are to be increased in the future in all scientific research fields, but whose aims are neither clearly defined nor always clearly perceived. To this question, the enforcement of data protection act which is a general law for the management of personal data processing has shown, since its adoption, many problems in scientific research. Many changes and adaptations have been made in 1986, 1994 and 2004, on the basis of which it was necessary to determine the management of personal data processing to scientific research purposes. This investigation reveals that data protection act lays the basic principles of the protection of personal data processed in scientific research by forecasting an a priori data gathering, a follow-up and an a posteriori control of the data processing implementation. The a priori management mainly aims at guaranteeing the scientific quality of research projects. As for the a posteriori follow-up which is inherent in scientific aim of data processing, its objective is to guarantee the enforcement of some rules such as the accountancy of data reuse, the presentation and the use of the research results in conditions that should not be harmful to people. As it cannot depend on the sole intervention of the responsible for the processing, the a posteriori follow-up is completed by an a posteriori control carried out by the affected person as well as the CNIL and the courts. In scientific research, these different controls could opportunely complement one another by an intervention of the community of researchers in question. This is self regulation. At the end, an efficient protection of personal data will result from a multiple step regulation system in which participants and everyone must actually use the means of actions which are acknowledged to them.
The protection of personal data in scientific research