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How the EDPB’s attempt to rewrite key data protection concepts creates more issues than it solves Through its Guidelines 02/2026 on Anonymisation of 7 July 2026, the European Data Protection Board seems at first glance to have done the honourable thing: admitting defeat and moving on. But behind the apparent recognition of the relative nature […]
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 […]
Not just a good excuse to brush up my limited German! Yesterday’s dual-language event in Zurich was an excellent blend of discussions regarding the concept of “personal data” and the tensions with data sharing frameworks. The juxtaposition of my opening keynote (in English) on case law on the notion of personal data (+ Digital Omnibus […]
As I was in a meeting when the European Data Protection Board opened registration for its pseudonymisation stakeholder event of 12 December 2025, I missed the short (approx. 1h) registration window and they placed me on a waiting list instead – a pity given my frequent interventions on the EU Court of Justice’s SRB judgment […]
Key points from (& thoughts on) draft GDPR Digital Omnibus: First, Art. 4(1) GDPR would be completed with an SRB-like statement (great news), plus a mitigation of abusive interpretation of the Scania judgment (also great news). Art. 4(15) on “data concerning health” would also finally be more specific, avoiding some of the more awkward and […]
The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of yesterday, 4 September 2025, in the EDPS v SRB case is significant – never mind the naysayers. It is the first time that the CJUE has clearly, explicitly said that if a dataset initially contains personal data but is pseudonymised, and that […]
My takeaways from the 100+ comment discussion following my post on whether the Crowdstrike incident is a “personal data breach” under the GDPR: 1. There are clearly two camps on this. I didn’t expect this level of opposition between two visions of what is a personal data breach. 2. One camp adheres to the views […]
Better Regulation: Rethinking (or getting rid of?) the ePrivacy Directive” – going past the soundbites, this is a hard look at the ePrivacy rules and whether they should still exist today. Readers will know I have often criticised the European Data Protection Board’s views on Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive (the “cookie” rule) because […]
The European Commission’s announcement that it will consider simplifying regulatory regimes, notably in relation to data and technology, seems to open Pandora’s box. Is it a chance to draw lessons from what works well and what works less well? In this series on “Better Regulation” in relation to the digital economy, I will be exploring […]
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of giving a 5h presentation on the latest case law on the GDPR and other data protection legislation at various levels (Belgium, other EU countries, the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights) to Data Protection Officers from a broad range of organisations and companies. The past […]
