General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for TCF candidates

Informative notices for TCF candidates

France Éducation international (FEI) offers a language level test that evaluates French language skills: the Test de Connaissance du Français (TCF). 
France Éducation international is committed to processing personal data in compliance with French law n°78-17 of January 6, 1978, as amended, relating to information technology, files and freedoms and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016, on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (RGPD).

Who is the data controller?
The personal data controller is France Éducation international (FEI), a public administrative establishment located at 1, avenue Léon Journault, 92318 Sèvres.

What is your personal data used for?
France Éducation international processes your personal data for the administration of the TCF, which includes designing the exams, managing the test and the network of test-taking centers. 
More specifically, the data collected enables:

• The management of your registration and the taking of the TCF;
• The assessment of your oral and written language skills;
• The improvement of the quality and fairness of the tests. For this purpose, FEI may use certain pseudonymized or anonymized data for:
  • psychometric analyses;
  • training of assessors (markers, examiners and editors);
  • scientific research in the field of language assessment and the development of tools, particularly AI-based;
  • Refinement of the AI-based marking aid solution developed by FEI (FIDELIA).
• Preventing and combating certification fraud;
• Producing statistics.

What is the legal basis for the processing?
The legal bases for processing are:

• The performance of a task in the public interest within the meaning of e) of 1 of Article 6 of the RGPD,
• The legitimate interest within the meaning of f) of 1 of Article 6 of the RGPD, namely improving the quality and fairness of tests, positioning FEI as an innovative public player in the field of the French language and optimizing financial management and costs related to correction; as well as preventing and combating fraud.
• The legal obligation within the meaning of c) of 1 of Article 6 of the RGPD for the transmission of TCF candidates' data in France to the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, in accordance with the decree of May 21, 2021 taken in application of Article R. 6113-17-4 of the Labor Code.

Who has access to your data?
The data collected by France Éducation international is only accessible to:

• Authorized agents of France Éducation international;
• Staff at your TCF test-taking center for the duration of your test's validity;
• A subcontractor of France Éducation international who handles the printing of nominative proofs;
• Researchers may be asked to carry out analyses of productions.

For anti-fraud purposes, organizations with which you yourself share your TCF attestation may check its validity, in particular using the QR code it contains. 
If you object, the validity of your attestation cannot be confirmed.
Some non-nominative written and oral productions may be used for TCF recognition purposes with official organizations, including outside the EU.
In addition, France Éducation international communicates certain data of candidates who have passed the TCF certification registered in France with the répertoire national des certifications professionnelles (RNCP) to the Caisse des dépôts et des consignations to meet a legal obligation.

What data is used?
France Éducation international only processes data that is strictly necessary for the purposes described above. This involves data that you provide when registering with a test center, as well as data from the assessment of your oral and written language skills, namely:

• Identification data:
  • Identity: surname, first name, gender, date and country (and commune if born in France) of birth,
  • nationality,
  • photo,
  • usual language,
  • candidate number,
  • attestation number,
  • only for TCF Canada: passport number,
  • only for TCF under DAP in France: postal address and telephone number,
  • signature,
  • TCF attestation number.
• Data relating to the TCF examination:
  • TCF declination,
  • place and dates of examination,
  • written answers,
  • voice recording of oral expression (voice),
  • reason for registering for the TCF,
  • if applicable, your proof of request for accommodation or exemption
  • if applicable, your proof of absence,
  • if applicable, data relating to fraud, including data relating to the disciplinary commission.
• Results
  • CECRL language level.

The content of your answers may be used to build up corpora for scientific research. If personal data are accidentally present in the productions, France Éducation international applies measures (pseudo-anonymization) when constituting research corpora to prevent the risk of identification.

Since October 2024, language skills assessment results have been derived from a hybrid double correction: one correction is always carried out by a human corrector, while the other correction is derived from automated processing called "FIDELIA". In the event of a significant discrepancy between the two corrections, a third human correction is carried out to guarantee the quality and fairness of the evaluation.

France Éducation international never bases the results of the evaluation of candidates' language skills on exclusively automated processing.

France Éducation international never uses nominative or directly identifying data for the development or refinement of the AI-based correction aid solution "FIDELIA". The data used is strictly limited to the purposes (answers to TCF questions, associated language level and socio-demographic data of candidates and markers necessary to prevent bias).

How long is your data kept?
Your data is kept for the time necessary to achieve the purposes described above and until the expiry of the applicable legal prescription and archiving periods.

FEI keeps your data in a format that allows you to be identified for 10 years, with the exception of the following lower specific periods:

• Incomplete registration files are deleted after 6 months.
• The signature is kept for 3 years.
• The voice recording of oral expression is kept for 2 years.
• Supporting documents for requests for test accommodations and requests for test exemptions are kept for 1 year.
• Supporting documents for requests for absences are kept for the regulatory period applicable to accounting records.
• Data relating to fraud are kept as follows:
  • Ban on passing - until the sanction expires.
  • Disciplinary commission data: 10 years.

Transfer of data outside the EU:
The test centers with which you register to take the TCF may be located all over the world, including countries outside the European Union, where personal data protection rules may differ from those applicable within the European Union.

Only the testing center with which you completed the registration will be able to access your data, including results, for the duration of your certification's validity.

What are your rights to your personal data?
In accordance with the French Data Protection Act (Law no. 78-17 of January 6, 1978, as amended) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR - no. 2016-679 of April 27, 2016), you have the right, depending on the applicable legal basis, to access, rectify, delete, limit and object to information concerning you.

These rights may be exercised by sending your request:

• by e-mail to dpd@france-education-international.fr,
• via the online form,
• by post to:

Délégué à la protection des données
France Éducation international
1 avenue Léon Journault
92310 Sèvres cedex

If you feel, after contacting us, that your personal data protection rights are not being respected, you have the option of lodging a complaint with the French Data Protection Authority (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés - CNIL).

Updated: September 2024