{"id":571661,"date":"2025-11-15T08:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T08:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/571661\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T08:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T08:43:15","slug":"bowing-to-pressure-eu-set-to-relax-ai-privacy-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/571661\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowing to pressure, EU set to relax AI, privacy rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Part of a bid to slash red tape for European businesses struggling against US and Chinese rivals, the move is drawing accusations that Brussels is putting competitiveness ahead of citizens&#8217; privacy and protection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Brussels denies that pressure from the US administration influenced its push to &#8220;simplify&#8221; the bloc&#8217;s digital rules, which have drawn the wrath of President Donald Trump and American tech giants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But the European Commission says it has heard the concerns of EU firms and wants to make it easier for them to access users&#8217; data for AI development &#8212; a move critics attack as a threat to privacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/eu-begins-rollout-ai-rules-072839042.html\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" data-ylk=\"slk:EU begins rollout of new AI rules with tech giants split on compliance;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EU begins rollout of new AI rules with tech giants split on compliance<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One planned change could unite many Europeans in relief however: the EU wants to get rid of those pesky cookie banners seeking users&#8217; consent for tracking on websites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to EU officials and draft documents seen by French press agency AFP, which could change before the November 19 announcement, the European Commission will propose:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"mb-4\">\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">a one-year pause in the implementation of parts of its AI law<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">overhauling its flagship data protection rules, which privacy defenders say will make it easier for US Big Tech to &#8220;suck up Europeans&#8217; personal data&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The bloc&#8217;s cornerstone General Data Protection Regulation (<a href=\"https:\/\/gdpr-info.eu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:GDPR;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">GDPR<\/a>) enshrined users&#8217; privacy from 2018 and influenced standards around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The EU says it is only proposing technical changes to streamline the rules, but rights activists and EU lawmakers paint a different picture.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Biggest rollback&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The EU executive proposes to narrow the definition of personal data, and allow companies to process such data to train AI models &#8220;for purposes of a legitimate interest&#8221;, a draft document shows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Reaction to the leaks has been swift &#8212; and strong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Unless the European Commission changes course, this would be the biggest rollback of digital fundamental rights in EU history,&#8221; 127 groups, including civil society organisations and trade unions, wrote in a letter on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Online privacy activist <a href=\"https:\/\/schre.ms\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Max Schrems;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Max Schrems<\/a> warned the proposals &#8220;would be a massive downgrading of Europeans&#8217; privacy&#8221; if they stay the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An EU official told AFP that Brussels is also expected to propose a one-year delay on implementing many provisions on high-risk AI, for example, models that can pose dangers to safety, health or citizens&#8217; fundamental rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Instead of taking effect next year, they would apply from 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This move comes after heavy pressure from European businesses and US Big Tech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dozens of Europe&#8217;s biggest companies, including France&#8217;s Airbus and Germany&#8217;s Lufthansa and Mercedes-Benz, called for a pause in July on the AI law which they warn risks stifling innovation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u00a0(With newswires)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part of a bid to slash red tape for European businesses struggling against US and Chinese rivals, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11330,6511,135417,2000,299,5187,42297,2557,181392,6202],"class_list":{"0":"post-571661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-brussels","9":"tag-data-protection","10":"tag-digital-rules","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-businesses","15":"tag-european-commission","16":"tag-planned-change","17":"tag-president-donald-trump"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115552833061388518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}