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…
After last week’s EU General Court judgment in the Irish DPC vs EDPB case, some claimed that this makes EDPB Guidelines and Opinions unassailable. (Yes, really.) That’s wrong. Let’s look at what the judgment means for the EDPB’s authority – and some issues it raises: 1/ Scope of EDPB binding decisions The judgment of the…
If A pseudonymises personal data of person Z and sends it to B, is it personal data from B’s perspective, even if B is never allowed to get additional information [=AddInfo] allowing the identification of Z? The EDPB suggests “yes” in its latest guidance on pseudonymisation. Based on the definition of pseudonymisation under the GDPR,…

The European Data Protection Board is at it again: an urgent procedure has been launched to obtain clarification on “some of the core issues that arise in the context of processing for the purpose of developing and training an AI model”. The aim? To bring “some much needed clarity into this complex area”. Yet the…

Let the name-calling begin. Companies looking to leverage data are now told that it is just like they are responsible for oil spills, cancer and drug cartel violence. As a lawyer working for some of the companies facing these absurd comparisons, I thought I would tackle another controversial stance now: just how absolute (or relative)…

Last week, I questioned the European Data Protection Board’s very authority to adopt its newly published Guidelines 2/2023 on Technical Scope of Art. 5(3) of ePrivacy Directive (i.e. the so-called “cookie” rule), guidelines according to which those rules should also apply to a broad range of other technologies and information, such as IP addresses, pixels…

“They will cover many scenarios”, said an EDPB member informally a couple of days ago, talking about what would become the EDPB’s new Guidelines 2/2023 on Technical Scope of Art. 5(3) of ePrivacy Directive (subject to a public consultation – more on that later). After having gone through them in detail, I cannot help but…