Art. 8, I of the law of 6 January 1978 as modified by the law of 6 August 2004, prohibits the processing of data related to health.
The prohibition of processing does not apply if:
1) the person concerned explicitly has agreed, except when the law has prohibited it;
2) when the processing is necessary for the protection of the human life, whereas the person concerned cannot give consent because of a legal incapacity or a material impossibility; or
3) when the processing is necessary for goals of preventive medicine or medical diagnosis,  providing of health care or treatment or the management of health services and when those data are processed by a health care professional or by another person who is subject to the (medical) professional secrecy based on art. 226-12 of the Penal Code (art. 8, II, 1°, 2° and 6°).

Automatic processing of genetic data is only allowed with a license of the French commission for the protection of the privacy (Commission national the l'Informatique et of the Libertés - CNIL) except when the processing happens by physicians or biologists and is necessary for goals of preventive medicine, of medical diagnoses or the management of health services or treatment (art. 25, I, 2°)

The person concerned has a right of being told that data concerning him are being processed and has also a right to receive a duplicate of the data (if so, he can be charged with the costs of such a duplicate). The person responsible for the keeping of the data can resist to a request to communicate the processing of data to the person concerned, if this request is manifestly mistaken.

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