Letter: Digital Omnibus must not sacrifice consumers’ personal data and right to privacy

The latest text proposed by the Irish Presidency threatens to undo over a decade of regulatory refinement and legal precedence, placing the personal data of millions of Europeans directly in the hands of US Big Tech, while restricting consumers' ability to seek redress when their data is misused. At a time when user data is being exploited more than ever, these proposals would fundamentally weaken the safeguards that protect consumers and could render the GDPR effectively unworkable.

The letter addresses specifically our concerns regarding the use of personal data for AI training and the concept of pseudonymised data as defined in the proposal. BEUC worries that:

• Enabling AI developers to process any personal data for AI training purposes without consumers’ express consent risks exposing people to harmful practices and strip people of their right to object to such processing. 
• Excluding pseudonymised data from the definition of personal data would effectively exempt some of the largest data processing industries from the scope of the GDPR and could lead to legal uncertainty. 

BEUC calls on Member States to reconsider this proposal, to ensure the Digital Omnibus does not undermine European consumers’ rights and more fundamentally that it does not unnecessarily expose them to potential harmful AI practices stemming from the use of their personal data.