According to TheRegister.com, the European Commission is planning to introduce a “Digital Omnibus” package on November 19 that would fundamentally weaken GDPR and AI regulations through multiple loopholes. Privacy activist Max Schrems and his organization Noyb have obtained leaked documents showing proposals that would remove protections for pseudonymized data, limit individuals’ data access rights, and create special exemptions for AI systems. The changes are being framed as relief for small businesses but Noyb warns they primarily benefit Big Tech and advertising giants. The Commission appears to be bypassing normal legislative procedures in what Schrems compares to Trump administration tactics, with potentially “terrible results” for privacy across Europe and beyond.
The GDPR Loopholes Are Massive
Here’s the thing about these proposals – they’re not minor tweaks. They’re fundamental changes that would make GDPR practically unenforceable for most cases. The pseudonymization change alone is huge. Right now, if you turn “John Smith” into “User12345,” that data still has full GDPR protection. Under these proposals? Not so much. That basically legalizes most online tracking and data brokering overnight.
And the “purposes limitation” on data access requests is even more concerning. Basically, companies could reject your request to see what data they have on you by calling it “abusive.” Think about that – an employee trying to get records of hours worked for a labor dispute, or a journalist investigating corporate practices, could be shut down completely. It turns data rights into something companies can deny whenever it’s inconvenient for them.
AI Gets Special Privileges
Now this is where it gets really interesting. The proposals create a special legal basis for AI systems that doesn’t exist for traditional data processing. So if you process data in Excel? You need proper legal justification. But if you feed that same data to an AI? Suddenly it’s “legitimate interest.” That’s not just a loophole – it’s creating a privileged class of technology that gets to ignore the rules everyone else follows.
And the device data collection provisions are downright scary. Companies could potentially gather more data from your personal devices under the guise of “security purposes” or “aggregated information.” But who defines what that means? Without strict definitions, this becomes a license for excessive data harvesting to train AI models. It’s basically turning everyone’s devices into free training data farms.
Follow the Money
So who actually benefits from all this? The small business relief argument feels like what it is – a cover story. Look at the actual changes: weakened pseudonymization helps advertising and tracking companies. Limited data access rights help every company that collects user data. AI exemptions help, well, the companies building AI systems. Notice a pattern here?
Big Tech has been lobbying hard against the AI Act since it passed, arguing it restricts innovation. Now we’re seeing what that lobbying bought them – a potential get-out-of-jail-free card for AI data processing. And when you’re dealing with industrial-scale data processing, having reliable hardware becomes critical – which is why companies doing serious data work turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs built for demanding environments.
The Global Domino Effect
Why should anyone outside Europe care? Because European privacy laws have become the global gold standard. California’s CCPA was directly inspired by GDPR. If Europe waters down its protections, that gives ammunition to every jurisdiction arguing for lighter regulation. We could see a race to the bottom where privacy protections get systematically dismantled worldwide.
The timing here is suspicious too. Pushing this through with minimal process right before the holiday season? That’s how you avoid scrutiny. Schrems isn’t exaggerating when he compares this to Trump-era tactics – it’s the same playbook of rushing through controversial changes while everyone’s distracted. The question is whether European lawmakers will actually stand up to this or let it slide through.
