Overview
- The Commission plans to fold the Open Data Directive, Free Flow of non‑personal Data Regulation, Data Governance Act and Data Act into a single, revised Data Act to streamline overlapping rules.
- Officials signaled that cookie and online‑tracking provisions would move into the GDPR, and a leaked draft reported by Euractiv indicates non‑essential cookies could rely on legitimate interest rather than prior consent.
- Citing recent EU Court of Justice rulings, the Commission intends to spell out broader lawful reuse of pseudonymized data, according to remarks by DG CONNECT’s Renate Nikolay.
- MLex reporting, echoed by netzpolitik.org, says the draft may permit training AI models on personal data under a legitimate‑interest basis, drawing sharp criticism from former senior EU privacy officials.
- Sources cited by netzpolitik.org say the package could narrow the scope of Article 9 sensitive data and curb data‑access requests, reflecting ideas also advanced in a German government proposal.