*** Presentation of the EDPB–EDPS Joint Opinion on the Digital Omnibus proposal ***
@Supervisor@social.edps.europa.eu Wojciech Wiewiorowski together with the European Data Protection Board Deputy-Chair Jelena Virant Burnik, was invited by the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU 2026 at the Council of the European Union to attend the meeting of the Antici Subgroup on Simplification, to exchange views on the recently adopted EDPB–EDPS Joint Opinion on the Digital Omnibus proposal.
On the proposed changes to ePrivacy, Wojciech Wiewiorowski underlined that the EDPS and EDPB strongly support the objective of addressing consent fatigue and the proliferation of cookie banners, while preserving the rule that information stored in the terminal equipment of end-users should remain confidential.
They equally support the Proposal to allow individuals to express their preferences via automated means. This can simplify compliance for controllers, support data subjects in making their online choices, and make such choices effective in practice.
On artificial intelligence, the Supervisor reminded that the EDPB has already clarified under which conditions legitimate interest can be used as a legal basis when developing and deploying AI models or systems. He also underlined that automated decision-making should remain prohibited in principle and that certain changes envisaged by the Proposal are likely to generate confusion in practice.
On biometric data, Wojciech Wiewiorowski welcomed that Proposal would allow its use for identity verification, provided it remains strictly limited to one-to-one verification and subject to the key safeguard that biometric data or the verification means remain under the sole control of the individual.
For more information, read the EDPB-EDPS Press release on Digital Omnibus proposal https://link.europa.eu/FQGCqv
