Having trouble getting interested in the race for the Elysée? The Elyze mobile application promises you “to love the presidential“. Available since January 2 on smartphones, it has been downloaded more than a million times and now firmly clings to the podium of the most popular apps on iPhone and Android. the protection of users’ personal data and the political biases that Elyze could cause Franceinfo answers four questions about this application which is stirring up the countryside.
1How does Elyze work?
With Elyze, fans of the Tinder application are not out of place. AT the way of the phone dating giant, Elyze does “match” the user with a candidate based on the political proposals he approves. “Stop the construction of wind turbines”, “introduce the vote at 16”, “not to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games”, “create 40,000 additional prison places”… For each of these measures, you can approve, disapprove or not respond by “swiping” (swiping the screen).
From your answers, the application calculates your rate of compatibility with the program of the various presidential candidates. This result is refined as you swipe.
2Who is behind this app?
Elyze was developed by two friends, Grégoire Cazcarra, 22, president of the citizen movement Les Engagés, and François Mari, 19, student at HEC Montréal. Several volunteers also joined the adventure. “Elyze was created in response to one of our college friends, Elise, who had turned her back on politics, not out of disinterest, but tired that the political class does not care about young people”, explains Gaspard Guermonprez, youtuber close to the team, to France 3 Hauts-de-France. “We wanted to create an educational and fun tool to encourage young people to take an interest in the presidential election, and bring this electorate back to the voting booth.”
3Is the app really politically neutral?
The founders assure: “We are neutral and apolitical, we simply transcribed, with the greatest care, the programs of the 15 successful candidates”, insists Gaspard Guermonprez with France 3 Hauts-de-France. “The idea is really not to be a voting instruction, but to help each user better understand the projects of each candidate, without favoring or disfavoring one”, adds Grégoire Cazcarra, interviewed by Brut.
Despite these commitments, several issues have been raised by users. In a first version of the application, the fifteen candidates selected from the surveys did not have the same number of registered proposals, according to Point. And some of Emmanuel Macron’s proposals, although not yet officially a candidate, came from his 2017 program.
LThe ranking of the “most compatible” candidates to the user’s responses also created a stir. Thus, with the same number of favorable answers for several candidates, it is Emmanuel Macron who topped the podium, as noted Mathis Hammel, cybersecurity expert. A problem related to the coding of the application which has been solved, assure the founders. A “tied” result should also be online soon, said François Mari, interviewed by Release. “Another trick of the Elyze app… Who benefits from this bad trick? Guess…” had reacted, in the meantime, the candidate of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Again twisted the app #Elyze… Who benefits from this bad move? Guess… https://t.co/QMvXaL2LTF
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) January 12, 2022
Computer engineer Mathis Hammel also found a flaw in the application allowing modify the candidates’ proposals. “We have been overwhelmed by the success of the application, I am the only one coding in the team, I try to take into account all the feedback, which is normal, but the work overload is enormous”, recognised Francois Mari in Release.
4Does Elyze pose a risk to your personal data?
When you download the Elyze application, you can give several personal information: your age, your gender, as well as your postal code. These will be associated with your answers on the presidential election. “The data is anonymous and optional”, assures Grégoire Cazcarra. But he acknowledges that the application could “to work” with polling institutes, researchers or think tanks based on this valuable information.
Some have wondered about the use of this data, stored on an application server at the cloud leader AWS (Amazon Web Services). Elyze’s general conditions of use specify that the application reserves the right to resell this data to third parties. “always anonymized”.
Faced with these concerns, the Cnil, the French policeman for personal data, announced on Monday January 17 that it was going to check whether Elyze was indeed complying with the regulations on these “sensitive data”. “We have been alerted and (…) we are examining its operation”, added the regulator, who could “to use its powers of repression” in the event of a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).