International coalition concerned about adaptation of GDPR rules

A broad coalition of 108 academics, privacy experts, companies, trade unions, and civil society organizations has voiced its concerns over proposals to reopen and amend the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“We are gravely concerned about ongoing proposals to reopen the GDPR, including changes expected as part of the fourth omnibus package, and mounting rumours that the GDPR will be further reopened in subsequent initiatives later this year or beyond,” the coalition writes in an open letter.

The signatories are afraid that policymakers will simplify the standards that are designed to protect Europeans’ digital rights, and instead roll back key accountability safeguards.

For example, the European Commission wants to liberalize the GDPR obligation to maintain a processing register on several points. Organizations with fewer than 250 employees don’t have to maintain a processing register. Instead, if it were up to the Commission, this would be extended to organizations with fewer than 500 employees and a certain annual turnover.

“This shift undermines what is often called the GDPR’s ‘risk-based approach’, a mechanism for calibrating obligations according to the potential harm to people’s rights and freedoms, not company size. More fundamentally, it could erode the Regulation’s original foundation as a rights-based instrument grounded in the recognition of personal data protection as a fundamental right,” the signatories warn.

They urge the European Commission to reject any reopening of the GDPR, recognise that current implementation challenges can be solved by effective enforcement and not deregulation, continue to support compliance mechanisms and legal certainty by ensuring greater support and assistance, and to resist external and internal pressure that seeks to adapt the GDPR.

The letter is addressed to Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, and Michael McGrath, Commissioner of Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection.

Amongst others, it has been signed by organizations like Amnesty International, Bits of Freedom (BOF), Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties), European Digital Rights (EDRi), Mozilla, Noyb, and Proton.