At the national level, Article 6 of Law No. 51-711 of 7 June 1951, as amended, on the obligation, coordination and secrecy of statistics determines what statistical secrecy is, its limits and its conditions of application. These rules apply to surveys conducted by the official statistical service, whether or not they are mandatory. The derogations provided for in this article are governed by the law. As it stands, the only exemptions that remain applicable are those relating to the status of public archives for surveys and censuses, which authorise the disclosure of individual information contained in the questionnaires and relating to personal and family life and, in general, to facts and behaviour of a private nature, after a period of 75 years for individuals and 25 years for legal persons. According to the law, this communication cannot be used for tax control or economic repression. Statistical secrecy obligations also apply to administrative data that may be disclosed by INSEE or the SSM under Article 7a of the Act, as well as to private data disclosed under Article 3a of the Act. Generally speaking, as regards access to public data, confidentiality obligations relating to the protection of privacy or business secrecy and the protection of personal data are guaranteed by law (Article 1 of the Law for a Digital Republic). At European level, the confidentiality of statistical information is affirmed by Article 338 of the EU Treaty. "The compilation of statistics shall respect (...) the confidentiality of statistical information". Statistical confidentiality is also the subject of Chapter V of Regulation 223/2009 as amended and of Implementing Regulation 557/2013 as regards access to confidential data for statistical purposes. A Statistical Confidentiality Committee ensures that these statutory guarantees are maintained. Its powers are set out in Article 6 bis of Act No. 51-711 of 7 June 1951, as amended, on the obligation, coordination and secrecy of statistics and Chapter II of Decree No. 2009-318 of 20 March 2009 on the National Council for Statistical Information and the Statistical Confidentiality Committee. It is called upon to give its opinion on any question relating to statistical secrecy, and gives its opinion on requests for communication of individual data collected by means of a statistical survey or transmitted to the official statistical service, for the purpose of drawing up statistics. It may also be asked by researchers to give an opinion on access to various administrative data not relating to public statistics. Chaired by a State Councillor, it includes representatives of the National Assembly and the Senate. The composition and operating procedures of the committee are set by decree in the Council of State. The beneficiaries of data communications resulting from ministerial decisions taken after the opinion of the Statistical Confidentiality Committee undertake not to communicate these data to anyone. Any breach of the provisions of this paragraph shall be punishable by the penalties provided for in Article 226-13 of the Criminal Code.

Secrecy is applied before the dissimination of data : for data related to businesses, no result that involves less than three businesses or establishments is published.
Similarly, a result will only be disseminated if no single business or establishment contributes more than 85% of that result.