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The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) can adopt various legal instruments, including Guidelines and Opinions, that are formally non-binding. Yet if supervisory authorities rarely (if ever) depart from them, controllers and processors structure their compliance efforts around them, and data subjects rely upon them in complaints and litigation, perhaps that formal status deserves a second […]
The Digital Omnibus evolutions at the level of the EU Council continue to have a mix of good and bad. Today, a quick focus on ePrivacy rules. First, some good: – There’s an interesting new Recital 46a on standardisation re consent preferences, stressing that technical solutions should allow data subjects to “easily set their consent […]
Confused about these GDPR 10-year anniversary posts in May 2026? While I have been working on it for a decade, I’m not keen on May 2016 (entry into force) but rather May 2018, when the GDPR became *applicable*, even more than April 2016, when it was *adopted*. Why? Before May 2018: – Enforcement of data […]
What does the EU Council’s draft Presidency compromise text on the GDPR & ePrivacy Digital Omnibus tell us? (1) The Council (for now) seems to recognise the need to clarify the concept of “personal data”. As a Recital 27a would provide: The identification of a natural person should be assessed *ex ante and in concreto*, […]
What is “political advertising” – or not? And when is it permitted? Scope creep beyond legislative intent is a real danger, a risk *everyone* should care about (even if you don’t think political ads concern you). The descriptively named “EU Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising” (“TTPA” for short) has two key aims: […]
The clear repudiation of an “absolute” concept of personal data has thrown a sharp focus on the process of pseudonymisation in the world of data protection. Through its SRB judgment of 4 September 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) made it clear that personal data that has undergone pseudonymisation can be […]
Some thoughts on the leaked EU Council draft compromise re the GDPR parts of the Digital Omnibus: – This draft reads as a major lobbying win by data protection authorities and civil society. The EDPB would be given more power, the Commission no supervision, and a lot of the more business-friendly proposals would be removed […]
[This is a translation of an op-ed in French that was published in the French journal Revue Politique on SRB and the Digital Omnibus, plus the newest EDPB & EDPS Joint Opinion on the topic. The original in French can be found on the Revue Politique website. + The banner image is a jest – […]
Under which circumstances does the GDPR consider scientific research compatible with existing purposes of personal data processing? Recent positions by regulators and legislators show it is still a hot topic – one with major implications for R&D globally. Recital 159 of the GDPR states that “the processing of personal data for scientific research purposes should […]
Some thoughts (+ & -) on the EDPB & EDPS’s joint opinion on the GDPR & ePrivacy Digital Omnibus, part 1: + The overall tone seems constructive – On the definition of personal data (PD), I don’t think quoting the Scania/SRB situation of information being “indirectly” PD for a disclosing party (§16) helps the EDPB/EDPS’s […]
