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As AI accelerates, Europe’s flagship privacy principles are under attack, warns EDPS

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has warned key planks of the bloc's data protection and privacy regime are under attack from industry The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has warned key planks of the bloc's data protection and privacy regime are under attack from industry lobbyists and could face a critical reception from lawmakers in the next parliamentary mandate.

“We have quite strong attacks on the principles themselves,” warned Wojciech Wiewiórowski, who heads the regulatory body that oversees European Union institutions’ own compliance with the bloc’s data protection rules, Tuesday. The GDPR has only been up and running since May 2018 but Wiewiórowski, who fleshed out his views on incoming regulatory challenges during a lunchtime press conference following publication of the EDPS’ annual report, said the make-up of the next parliament will contain few lawmakers who were involved with drafting and passing the flagship privacy framework. “We can say that these people who will work in the European Parliament will see GDPR as a historic event,” he suggested, predicting there will be an appetite among the incoming cohort of parliamentarians to debate whether the landmark legislation is still fit for purpose.

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