- European proposal to amend GDPR/privacy legislation is expected soon
- Anonymized data may no longer always be protected by such laws
- The EU has already blocked or delayed AI development
New documents seen by Political suggests that some European privacy laws, such as GDPR, may soon be relaxed to boost European competitiveness and support AI innovation.
A proposal expected on 19 November 2025 could see a new ‘digital omnibus’ package unveiled to simplify tech laws.
Such a change could allow AI developers to process some categories of data, such as political views, religion and health, for training purposes.
Europe can change how AI trains on your data
Political suggests that pseudonymised data – anonymised by removing personally identifiable information – could no longer always be protected by laws like GDPR, meaning it could continue to be used in AI training.
Additionally, websites and apps may have broader legal grounds to track users beyond consent.
However, these changes may be “targeted” and technical, meaning that the basic GDPR principles will not be changed.
That said, the potential changes have already drawn scrutiny — changing the GDPR, which is still a relatively new law and one that has been welcomed by those with an eye for privacy — would risk political scrutiny.
GDPR architect Jan Philipp Albrecht warns that a change could “[undermine] European standards dramatically.”
“Is this the end of data protection and privacy as we have signed it in the EU Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights,” Albrecht wrote.
The Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Austria and Slovenia have already opposed a GDPR rewrite.
Germany appears to support such a change, while Finland appears to welcome changes that benefit European AI competitiveness.
Globally, these safeguards are planned to hold Europe back amid growth from the US and China in terms of AI development. EU privacy regulators have already delayed or blocked a number of AI rollouts by Meta, Google, OpenAI and others.
The European Commission has yet to publicly declare changes to the GDPR and/or other privacy regulations, but expectations that this may happen in the coming days have started discussions on both sides of the coin.
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