Omnibus digitale: la Commissione europea vuole distruggere i principi fondamentali del GDPR

Here’s the meat and potatoes of the article:

>Draft changes would create new exceptions for AI companies that would allow them to legally process special categories of data (like a person’s religious or political beliefs, ethnicity or health data) to train and operate their tech. The Commission is also planning to reframe the definition of such special category data, which are afforded extra protections under the privacy rules.  

>Officials also want to redefine what constitutes as personal data, saying that pseudonymized data (where personal details have been obscured so a person can’t be identified) might not always be subject to the GDPR’s protections, a change that reflects a [recent ruling](https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=305584&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=695866) from the EU’s top court.

>Finally, it wants to reform Europe’s pesky cookie banner rules by inserting a provision into the GDPR that would give website and app owners more legal grounds to justify tracking users beyond simply obtaining their consent.

>The draft proposal could still change before the Commission officially unveils its plans on Nov. 19.

>Once presented, the omnibus package has to pass muster with EU countries and lawmakers, who are already sharply divided on whether to touch privacy protections.

They are basically saying “We are not economically competitive with the US and China on AI, and that’s because we protect our citizen’s privacy. We have to losen up regulations such as GDPR to ensure that we can compete”. Very ends justfying the means here. Not surprising as it almost feels like the EU is speedrunning getting rid of all consumer and citizen protections it fought hard for the last 10 years.