Europe is scaling back its landmark privacy and AI laws

Summary

After years of staring down the world’s biggest tech companies and setting the bar for tough regulation worldwide, Europe has blinked. Under intense pressure from industry and the US government, Brussels is stripping protections from its flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — including simplifying its infamous cookie permission pop-ups — and relaxing or delaying landmark AI rules in an effort to cut red tape and revive sluggish economic growth.The changes, proposed by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, changes core elements of the GDPR, making it easier for companies to share anonymized and pseudonymized personal datasets. They would allow AI companies to legally use personal data to train AI models, so long as that training complies with other GDPR requirements.The proposal also waters down a key part of Europe’s sweeping artificial intelligence rules, the AI Act, which came into force in 2024 but had many elements that would only come into effect later. The change extends the grace period for rules governing high-risk AI systems that pose “serious risks” to health, safety, or fundamental rights, which were due to come into effect next summer. The rules will now only apply once it’s confirmed that “the needed standards and support tools are available” to AI companies.One change that’s likely to please almost everyone is a reduction in Europe’s ubiquitous cookie banners and pop-ups. Under the new proposal, some “non-risk” cookies won’t trigger pop-ups at all, and users would be able to control others from central browser controls that apply to websites broadly.Other amendments in the new Digital Omnibus include simplified AI documentation requirements for smaller companies, a unified interface for companies to report cybersecurity incidents, and centralizing oversight of AI into the bloc’s AI Office.“This is being done in the European way.”“We have all the ingredients in the EU to succeed. But our companies, especially our start-ups ...