Question about French LCEN law and GitHub Pages anonymity

[lukas-dev-02-51]

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Hello,

I am based in France and I am preparing a personal, non-commercial website hosted on GitHub Pages.

I would like to comply with Article 1-1, II of the French LCEN law, which allows non-professional website publishers to remain publicly anonymous if they provide their required identification details to their hosting provider.

Does GitHub provide a procedure for this? If so, could you please direct me to the appropriate official support channel?

Thank you.

[kotnikiransenapati]

No, GitHub does not provide a procedure or official support channel for this.

As a US entity, GitHub does not maintain a statutory registry for French publishers under the LCEN (Act n° 2004-575, updated under Article 1-1, II by the 2024 SREN law; previously Article 6-III-2). If you open a ticket with GitHub Support requesting to file your civil identity for LCEN compliance, it will either be deflected by automated support or closed with a note that GitHub does not collect or certify personal identification for local publisher registries.

Here is how non-professional publishers in France handle this in practice when hosting on GitHub Pages, along with the legal nuance to keep in mind:

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1. The Standard Practice on GitHub Pages

French non-professional publishers relying on the anonymity exception typically include a Mentions légales page with:

• Publisher status: A statement indicating that the site is published non-professionally and that personal details are withheld in accordance with the law:

  "Site édité à titre non professionnel par un particulier ayant choisi de préserver son anonymat conformément à l'article 1-1, II de la loi n° 2004-575 du 21 juin 2004 (LCEN)."

• Contact point: A functional email address or contact form so visitors and authorities can reach you directly.
• Mandatory host details: Full contact details for GitHub as the hosting provider:
  • Hébergeur : GitHub, Inc.
  • Adresse : 88 Colin P. Kelly Jr. Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, États-Unis
  • Contact : https://support.github.com / +1 (877) 448-4820

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2. How GitHub Handles Identification

Under GitHub’s Guidelines for Legal Requests of User Data, GitHub retains technical logs (account registration email, IP access logs, commit timestamps). If French judicial authorities require the identity behind a repository, they must follow mutual legal assistance procedures (such as MLAT or rogatory letters).

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3. The Legal Caveat

Because a free GitHub account does not verify your legal civil name or home address, GitHub cannot provide civil identification details it does not possess.

• If your website contains entirely benign personal content (portfolio, technical blog), relying on the standard mentions légales referencing GitHub as the host is standard across the French developer community.
• If your content is sensitive or requires strict, bulletproof compliance with French authorities, the only guaranteed approach is to use a French or EU-based hosting provider (e.g., OVHcloud, Scaleway, or Infomaniak) that provides an explicit civil identity verification workflow for non-professional publishers.

[kotnikiransenapati]

If you are still setting up your Pages site and need a refresher on repository structure and custom domains, this hosting a website on GitHub Pages tutorial covers the deployment process from scratch. This walkthrough is useful for verifying your static file layout and ensuring your legal notices page deploys properly.

[Zahid9985]

Hi @lukas-dev-02-51,

I couldn’t find any GitHub documentation describing a dedicated procedure for the French LCEN provision, so I can’t point you to an official form for it. Here is what I’d suggest.

1. Ask GitHub Support directly

Only GitHub can say what it holds and how it treats this. Open a ticket at support.github.com/contact and ask:

Whether GitHub, as the hosting provider for GitHub Pages, considers the identifying details already on your account (name, email, billing information if any) sufficient for the LCEN identification requirement for non-professional publishers.
Whether GitHub can confirm in writing that it holds those details and would disclose them only on a lawful request from the judicial authorities.
Whether there is a dedicated process or contact for hosting-provider obligations under French law.

Keep the written reply, because it’s your evidence that you’ve complied.

2. Make sure your account details are accurate

The anonymity right depends on the hosting provider holding true identification details for you. Check that the name and email in your GitHub account settings are accurate and current.

3. Check the exact legal reference

The provision allowing anonymity for non-professional publishers is commonly cited as Article 6, III-2 of the LCEN, which differs from the “Article 1-1, II” in your question. The law has been amended in recent years, so verify the current numbering and wording on Légifrance.

4. Legal notice page

Many non-professional publishers add a short mentions légales page that names the hosting provider and states that the publisher is non-professional and has given their details to that provider. If you do this, use the hosting provider’s current legal name and address as listed in GitHub’s own documentation, not a copy from another site.

5. Get proper legal advice if you need certainty

I’m not a lawyer, and I can’t confirm whether GitHub’s standard account data satisfies the French requirement. A French lawyer, or the CNIL for the data-protection side, can tell you for certain.

Hope this helps! If it does, please mark it as the answer.