SERGIC (Real Estate)

Summary

The CNIL based the penalty on two grounds: Lack of basic security measures and excessive data storage. As to the first, sensitive user documents uploaded by rental candidates (including ID cards, health cards, tax notices, certificates issued by the family allowance fund, divorce judgments, account statements) were accessible online without any authentication procedure in place. Although the vulnerability was known to the company since March 2018, it was not finally resolved until September 2018. In addition, the company stored the documentation provided by candidates for longer than necessary. The CNIL took into account i.a. the seriousness of the breach (lack of due care in addressing vulnerability and the fact that the documents revealed very intimate aspects of users' lives), the size of the company and its financial standing.