---
sheet_format: 1.0
id: 2021-11-disparaitre-radars-algorithmes
title: "Disparaître : sous les radars des algorithmes"
title_en: "Disappear: under the algorithms' radar"
speaker: Erwan Rougeux
with: [Marc Meillassoux (director), teachers and students of the Lycée français Louis-Massignon (Casablanca), other protagonists in Berlin, Hong Kong and London]
date: 2021-11-30
event: "Documentaire « Disparaître : sous les radars des algorithmes » (Marc Meillassoux, Arte / FRANCE 24)"
place: "Lycée français Louis-Massignon, Casablanca, Morocco (Erwan's scenes); the film also goes to Berlin, Hong Kong and London"
format: interview
language: fr
duration: "44:43"
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA
slides: null
topics: [privacy, personal data, students, edtech, open source, mission laïque française, surveillance, gafam]
source: "Summary written by Claude (AI) from the auto-generated YouTube captions of the FRANCE 24 cut, with Erwan's passages re-transcribed locally (Whisper) and attributed by local voice identification against his voiceprint. Not a verbatim transcript; check the recording before quoting."
review: none
---

# Disparaître : sous les radars des algorithmes

**In one sentence:** Marc Meillassoux's 2021 documentary, the second half of the diptych opened by *Nothing to Hide*, in which Erwan appears as the IT director of the Mission laïque française, explaining why a school network must protect its students' personal data and why it chose open-source platforms over the turnkey offers of the tech giants.

**Attribution note:** the film has many voices and no speaker labels. Erwan's passages were identified by comparing the audio with his voiceprint: 10:26–10:43, 11:19–11:30, 11:31–12:14 and 31:58–32:11 match it clearly (scores 0.6–0.77, threshold 0.35). The sentences just before, at 31:20–31:56 (the five or six solutions tested, "liberté pédagogique"), and just after, at 32:12–32:44 (OneNote, Google Classroom), score 0.2–0.34 and are most likely a teacher of the school. A dubbing voice at 42:00–42:15 (Berlin) scores around 0.4 and is not him. His job title is not stated in the captions; it comes from his own account of that period (CIO and CISO of the MLF until 2024). This is the 44-minute FRANCE 24 cut of a 52-minute film; the speaker's own copy of the 52-minute Arte TV cut was scanned the same way and contains exactly the same four passages (at 9:32, 10:25, 10:45 and 37:48 in that cut). An 80-minute version exists on arte.tv and has not been checked.

## TL;DR
*Disparaître* follows people with very different threat levels who try to escape online surveillance: an actor in Berlin leaving Google and Facebook and launching a Mobilizon instance, a researcher in Hong Kong learning to protect activists after the national security law, journalists and WikiLeaks collaborators around Julian Assange's extradition hearing, and, in Casablanca, the teachers and pupils of the Lycée français Louis-Massignon, a school of the Mission laïque française network. In the Casablanca scenes, Erwan takes part in a class session where teenagers read Instagram's terms of use rewritten in plain language, and he explains what metadata are and how they are sold and resold. In interview he states the school's doctrine: if the school does not protect its students' privacy, nobody will, and the risks are of three kinds, exploitation by the big platforms and their partners, hijacked accounts, and data used between pupils for cyberbullying. Later, on the school's digital transition started in 2017, he says the choice went to free and open-source software because of privacy and of the data collected: the school picked Moodle and BigBlueButton rather than Google Classroom or Microsoft tools. The film closes on free software, federation, the GDPR and the idea that freedom is the capacity to say no.

## Erwan's key points
- He tells pupils that beyond what they post, they hand over metadata: when they connected, how many times they liked a given content. That bundle is sold to companies, which can resell it to others ([10:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=626s)).
- To a pupil's image "we bring the wood and light the fire, but we don't get the heat", he answers that the platform did give them the fireplace: Instagram is free to use, but the data belong to the platform and it will use them, "c'est toujours comme ça" ([11:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=679s)).
- He states the school's duty: "if it is not us who protect our students' privacy, who will?" ([11:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=691s)).
- He names three risks for students' data: exploitation by the GAFAM or the companies partnered with them; hackers taking control of accounts or access; and data used between pupils for cyberbullying or similar ([11:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=707s)).
- On the choice of a learning platform, he says that in terms of privacy and of the data collected, the team was aligned with free software and therefore always tended to favour open-source solutions over proprietary ones ([31:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1918s)).
- The surrounding scene, which he does not voice alone, shows the outcome: five or six solutions tested, the turnkey offers of the tech giants judged attractive but restrictive, Google Classroom rejected because it required giving every pupil an email address, and Moodle plus BigBlueButton adopted ([31:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1880s), [32:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1932s)).

## Outline
- [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=0s) FRANCE 24 "Reporters, le doc" introduction: a world tour of people trying to slip under the algorithms' radar; a co-production with Arte, directed by Marc Meillassoux.
- [1:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=115s) Every click leaves traces; the business model is to collect as much as possible and sell it to those who target you; threat levels differ ("a jealous spouse, your boss, or the NSA").
- [3:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=232s) Max, actor and musician in Berlin, goes to the Chaos Communication Congress to learn how to leave Google: compartmentalise, diversify tools, switch browser and search engine.
- [7:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=466s) A collective of Berlin nightlife actors looks for an alternative to Facebook Events: the Mobilizon project.
- [9:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=543s) Casablanca, Lycée français Louis-Massignon: teachers show pupils the hidden side of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok; nobody has read the terms of use; a version rewritten by an English lawyer for teenagers.
- [10:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=626s) Erwan explains metadata and the resale chain of personal data.
- [11:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=672s) A pupil: wood, fire, no heat. Erwan: they gave you the fireplace; the data are theirs.
- [11:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=691s) Erwan, interview: students' privacy is the school's responsibility; the three risks.
- [12:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=750s) Pupils audit each other's Instagram accounts and discover the privacy settings.
- [14:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=851s) Hong Kong: a researcher writes to the director after the umbrella movement; Chinese services can now monitor everyone's communications.
- [17:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1026s) Threat modelling in five questions: what to protect, from whom, worst case, adversaries' capabilities.
- [18:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1128s) Journalists and sources; WikiLeaks, founded in 2006; Julian Assange facing 175 years.
- [20:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1203s) Levels of first contact for a source: Twitter or email, Signal, SecureDrop over Tor from a cheap laptop in a café.
- [23:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1419s) Max meets Mobilizon's developers: hosting your own instance is the price of freedom.
- [25:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1518s) Federation explained with Mastodon and the email analogy: many small servers, no single authority.
- [26:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1613s) A crypto party for artists: VPN versus Tor, de-googling Android, free and open-source software.
- [29:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1784s) Free software as "liberté, égalité, fraternité"; assume any non-free program reports on you.
- [30:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1854s) Casablanca: the school's digital transition since 2017, five or six solutions tested, the giants' turnkey offers versus "liberté pédagogique" (most likely a teacher speaking).
- [31:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1918s) Erwan: privacy and data collection led the team to free and open-source software.
- [32:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1932s) OneNote and Google Classroom judged unsuitable for a school (an email address per pupil); Moodle and BigBlueButton chosen; "not sexy, but infinitely adaptable".
- [33:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=2026s) London, Belmarsh: Assange's extradition hearing; the precedent for journalists.
- [36:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=2171s) Hong Kong after the 2020 national security law: a workshop on email encryption with PGP, explained with a scrambled sheet of paper.
- [39:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=2357s) No political force has proposed a vision of an internet not run by advertising companies; the GDPR as a global standard; dismantling the giants as a last resort; funding privacy-respecting services.
- [42:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=2545s) Closing: we do not need millions of heroes, only millions of people willing to accept small inconveniences; freedom is the capacity to say no.

## Notable quotes
> "La vie privée des élèves est très importante pour nous, parce que si ce n'est pas nous qui protégeons la vie privée de nos élèves, qui le fera ?" — Erwan Rougeux, [11:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=691s)
*"Our students' privacy matters a lot to us, because if we don't protect our students' privacy, who will?"*

> "Tu peux utiliser un Instagram gratuitement, mais les données, elles sont à eux et ils les utiliseront. C'est toujours comme ça." — Erwan Rougeux, [11:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=683s)
*"You can use Instagram for free, but the data are theirs and they will use them. It is always like that."*

> "En termes de respect de la vie privée et des données qui sont collectées, on était en adéquation avec le logiciel libre, et du coup on a toujours eu tendance à vouloir privilégier les solutions open source plutôt que des solutions propriétaires." — Erwan Rougeux, [31:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1918s)
*"On privacy and on the data collected, we were aligned with free software, so we always tended to favour open-source solutions over proprietary ones."*

> "La seule chose qui compte, c'est notre capacité à dire non." — the film's closing voice (not Erwan), [42:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=2573s)
*"The only thing that counts is our capacity to say no."*

## Questions this answers
**Q: What is Erwan Rougeux's role in the documentary *Disparaître*?**
A: He appears in the Casablanca sequences, as the IT director of the Mission laïque française, the network the Lycée français Louis-Massignon belongs to: in a class session on social networks with teenagers, and in interview on the school's responsibility for its students' data ([10:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=626s), [11:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=691s), [31:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1918s)).

**Q: Why does he say a school has to protect its students' privacy?**
A: Because nobody else will do it for them. He sees three risks: commercial exploitation by the big platforms and their partners, accounts taken over by hackers, and data used between pupils for cyberbullying ([11:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=691s)).

**Q: What did he tell the pupils about "free" social networks?**
A: That beyond their posts they give away metadata (connection times, likes), which are sold and resold between companies; the service is free, but the data belong to the platform ([10:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=626s), [11:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=679s)).

**Q: Why did the Mission laïque française school pick Moodle and BigBlueButton instead of Google Classroom or Microsoft tools?**
A: Erwan says the team was aligned with free software on privacy and data collection and favoured open source over proprietary tools; the sequence adds that the giants' turnkey offers were restrictive, that Google Classroom required an email address per pupil, unacceptable for primary and middle school, and that teachers rejected it ([31:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1918s), [32:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1932s)).

**Q: How does this connect to his later positions on sovereignty and self-hosting?**
A: The same line runs through his talks: know where the data live and who profits from them, prefer open source and local control, and treat privacy as an institutional duty rather than an individual chore. See the recurring positions in `llms.txt`, and the 2019 MoodleMoot talk on how the MLF ran Moodle for 60,000 students.

**Q: What is the film about beyond the school?**
A: Threat models for very different people: an artist leaving Google and Facebook in Berlin, activists in Hong Kong after the national security law, journalists and WikiLeaks sources around Julian Assange's extradition, plus federation (Mastodon, Mobilizon), free software, the GDPR and the politics of data ([17:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1026s), [25:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=1518s), [39:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXyQQnZIMA&t=2357s)).

**Q: Who made the film, and where can I find Marc Meillassoux's work?**
A: Marc Meillassoux wrote and directed it, as the second part of a diptych with *Nothing to Hide* (2017, co-directed with Mihaela Gladovic, released under a Creative Commons licence). Both films are presented on his production company's site, Deep Docs: https://deepdocs.eu/disappear/ and https://deepdocs.eu/nth/.

**Q: When and where was it broadcast?**
A: First on Arte on 30 November 2021 (52-minute TV cut, also titled *Unterm Radar* in German), then as an 80-minute version on arte.tv from March 2022; this 44-minute cut was broadcast by FRANCE 24 in its "Reporters" programme and published on YouTube on 15 April 2022. The Casablanca scenes were shot earlier, while Erwan was CIO of the MLF.

## Mentioned
Marc Meillassoux, Deep Docs Films, *Nothing to Hide*, Mihaela Gladovic, Arte, FRANCE 24, Mission laïque française, Lycée français Louis-Massignon (Casablanca), Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Google, Google Classroom, Microsoft OneNote, Moodle, BigBlueButton, Zoom, Chaos Communication Congress, Firefox, Chromium, Tor, DuckDuckGo, Mobilizon, Mastodon, Fediverse, Signal, SecureDrop, Tails, PGP, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, The Guardian, Hong Kong, Berlin, Kreuzberg, GDPR, European Union