Nearly one million people in France were victims of data theft or leaks over the last two years.
Internal AffairsFrance
- Error detected
- The stated magnitude ('nearly one million') is substantially lower than the actual figure. CNIL-registered data shows 40.3 million accounts compromised in 2025 alone. A single breach (FICOBA) affected 1.2 million people. Le Monde reports that approximately 80 data leaks over the 2024–2025 period each concerned at least one million people, placing the total number of victims in the tens of millions of accounts and several million unique individuals at minimum.
- Omissions
- The claim uses a vague 'last two years' timeframe. The most relevant official data covers calendar years 2024 and 2025, which aligns with the session date of May 2026.
- The MEP did not cite any source for the figure, making it unclear whether the estimate is based on official statistics or anecdotal evidence.
- The Le Monde article used as a key source was published on 2026-05-18, one day before the session. While the data it contains predates the session, the MEP could not have known this specific article at the time of speaking, though the underlying CNIL data was publicly available earlier.
- Account compromises do not equal unique victims; one person may appear in multiple breaches, which complicates precise victim counts. However, even conservative estimates place the unique victim count well above one million.
- Sources
- PrimaryCNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés)The CNIL received 5,629 violation notifications in 2024, a 20% increase compared to 2023 ('La CNIL a ainsi reçu 5 629 notifications de violation en 2024, soit 20 % de plus qu'en 2023').
- SecondaryLe MondeOver the last two calendar years, approximately 80 data leaks concerned at least one million people each ('lors des deux dernières années civiles, environ 80 fuites ont concerné au moins 1 million de personnes').
- SecondaryDPO PartageIn 2025, 40.3 million accounts were compromised and 5,840 violation declarations were registered by the CNIL ('40,3 millions de comptes compromis et 5 840 déclarations de violations enregistrées par la CNIL').
- SecondaryCapital.frA cyberattack on the FICOBA file threatens the banking data of 1.2 million people ('Une cyberattaque sur le fichier FICOBA menace les données bancaires de 1,2 million de personnes').