EU governments call it ‘simplification,’ but their Data Omnibus deal considerably weakens our rights
EU governments have agreed on their position on the Digital Omnibus, retaining changes that threaten fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. With negotiations moving to the European Parliament, MEPs must reject the proposed weakening of GDPR safeguards for AI and pseudonymised data, protect individual rights, and defend ePrivacy against new tracking exemptions. Genuine simplification should make our rights easier to exercise and enforce, not give companies more freedom to exploit our data.
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EU governments call it ‘simplification,’ but their Data Omnibus deal considerably weakens our rights
EU governments have agreed on their position on the Digital Omnibus, retaining changes that threaten fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. With negotiations moving to the European Parliament, MEPs must reject the proposed weakening of GDPR safeguards for AI and pseudonymised data, protect individual rights, and defend ePrivacy against new tracking exemptions. Genuine simplification should make our rights easier to exercise and enforce, not give companies more freedom to exploit our data.
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Cookies and consent: why ePrivacy matters for our browsing life
The Commission’s Digital Omnibus proposal reopens an important debate on ePrivacy and how choices are made when browsing the internet. With this leaflet, we cut through the jargon and explain what cookies, tracking technologies, consent and ePrivacy mean in everyday life, helping you to understand the issues at stake and the opportunities that lie ahead.
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AI Omnibus deal: EU lawmakers should reject a rollback of AI safeguards
On 7 May 2026, EU institutions reached a final deal on the AI Omnibus, a file presented as technical simplification of the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). In practice, the deal delays key protections, weakens transparency and creates a dangerous precedent for the EU digital rulebook. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU should reject it.
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Europe shouldn’t “move fast and break things” with fundamental rights
The Digital Omnibus proposals, presented as “simplification,” risk weakening essential safeguards in the GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive, and the AI Act. By reducing protections and delaying obligations for high-risk systems, they introduce a logic reminiscent of the tech industry’s “move fast and break things” approach. In digital infrastructures built on large-scale data processing and automated decision-making, however, mistakes do not simply disappear. They become part of the system. This is why regulation is essential to protect people’s rights.
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Reopening GDPR and ePrivacy through the Digital Omnibus: a risky path for EU digital rights
EDRi has assessed the Digital Omnibus proposals affecting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy framework. While presented as simplification, the changes amount to deregulation in effect, weakening fundamental rights safeguards, increasing legal uncertainty, and advancing through a process that falls short of democratic lawmaking standards.
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When data relate to us
The EDPS vs. Single Resolution Board judgment goes to the heart of the EU’s fundamental right to data protection, shaping how artificial intelligence, data spaces and so-called privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) will be governed in practice. The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) arrives at a crucial time to reiterate what counts as personal data, reinforcing the importance of the protection that the GDPR was designed to guarantee.
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Press Release: Commission’s Digital Omnibus is a major rollback of EU digital protections
Today the European Commission has published two Digital Omnibus proposals, reopening the EU’s core protections against harm in the digital age. This step risks dismantling the rules-based system that was hard-won over decades, endangering the very foundation of human rights and tech policy in the EU.
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Panoptykon Foundation challenges the data retention regime in Poland: Telecom companies requested to delete activists’ data
EDRi member Panoptykon Foundation supports activists and attorney-at-law Artur Kula to demand that the four biggest telecom companies in Poland delete data stored for the purpose of law enforcement in the 12 months prior. They want to challenge the current unlawful data retention regime in Poland.
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The ePrivacy Regulation proposal has been withdrawn, but the fight for your privacy is far from over
The European Commission's withdrawal of the ePrivacy Regulation proposal is a major setback for privacy rights in Europe, driven by pressure from industry interests and national security concerns. However, EDRi remains committed to advocating for stronger privacy protections, challenging commercial and state surveillance in future legislative efforts.
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Unpacking digital fairness: What Europe must do now to end the tech industry’s most nefarious tactics
The EU plans to propose a Digital Fairness Act to better protect consumers from deceptive design practices, social media addiction, and pervasive online tracking. We unpack what this means and what the European Commission should do to end Big Tech’s most nefarious tactics.
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Open letter: Modernised ePrivacy legislation must protect fundamental rights
Today, 24 April, EDRi and 13 organisations call for robust legislation to complement and particularise the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and call upon the next European Commission to include comprehensive plans for reforming the European Union’s ePrivacy legislation.
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European Court of Human Rights confirms: weakening of encryption can violate the human right to privacy
In a milestone judgment - Podchasov v. Russia - the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that weakening of encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of the communications of all users and violates the human right to privacy.
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