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Europe Hits the Brakes on GDPR: Plans to Slash Red Tape in the Works
Friday, April 4, 2025
The European Union is preparing to dial back certain provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), one of its most widely known and complex tech legislations, reports Politico.
Complaints From All Stakeholders
According to Dr Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb and a Follow at the British Computer Society (BCS), this isn’t unexpected. “I am not surprised by the looming overhaul of GDPR after almost seven years of complaints about it from all impacted stakeholders – including data subjects, data controllers and processors. In its current shape, GDPR creates more harm and hurdles than any palpable benefits.”
He says numerous research and reports, have found that most data subjects do not feel that their data is better protected. “While many experience the growing GDPR fatigue, such as omnipresent and annoying cookie banners, some of which require several clicks and scrolling to disappear. Worse, many unscrupulous organizations utilize Dark Patterns to mislead individuals and track them against their will, while still wasting their time with consent walls and irritating banners.”
Concurrently, Kolochenko says data breaches are surging, while national DPAs in the EU member states have pretty different enforcement priorities, and thus polices, creating inconsistent and uncertain enforcement of GDPR. Foreign companies are spooked by the EU’s GDPR, AI Act and DSA – just to name a few – and rather go to the US or UK, where the regulatory landscape is more friendly for businesses (but not less complicated). Therefore, the eventual revision of the GDPR is certainly needed and will likely make EU countries more attractive for businesses, while better safeguarding our personal data in practice.” Read Full Article