The leaking of several documents Friday that apparently are a draft of the European Commission's digital simplification package, including GDPR reform, prompted mixed reactions from privacy professionals and advocates.
As the European Commission readies a "digital omnibus" proposal to simplify data laws and reduce business obligations, any reforms -- including to the GDPR -- must be evidence-based and continue recognizing data protection as a fundamental right, privacy lawyers said.
An appeal this week of an EU General Court ruling in a case that questioned the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF) will bring the issue to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) again, IAPP officials and privacy lawyers said Thursday. Euractiv reported French Parliament Member Philippe Latombe's appeal Wednesday. Latombe didn't immediately comment.
Privacy and other civil society advocates are the "regulators of last resort" seeking to uphold human rights in the age of AI, speakers said Wednesday during a hearing of the U.K. Parliament Joint Human Rights Committee. Lawmakers are considering recommendations to the government on AI regulation and rights protections.
Although it's mainly a framework at present, Italy's AI Act (Law No. 132/2025) represents a "sophisticated regulatory approach" that could influence other EU countries and the U.K., lawyers said recently. The country was the first to adopt the EU AI Act into national law.
Meta and TikTok may have breached provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA) regarding transparency and user rights and empowerment, the European Commission said Friday. Neither company commented immediately.
Most changes to the U.K.'s data protection regime will ease data flows between the U.K. and EU, but some should be clarified and monitored, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) said Monday.
Whether age-gating measures truly protect children online or just raise other legal concerns is unclear, speakers said during Hogan Lovells' The Data Chronicles podcast Thursday, which focused on age assurance in the U.S. and U.K.
Biometric information is the most personal information, but it holds benefits for society as long as there are guardrails against its risks, New Zealand officials from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Wednesday during an IAPP webinar. The discussion included social media bans for children and AI regulation.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision last month on the meaning of pseudonymized data has sparked a wave of legal comment because DPAs are split over how possible it is for third parties to retrieve personal information from such data, Hogan Lovells privacy lawyer Etienne Drouard said in an interview.