The Ominous Omnibus: Dismantling the Right of Access to Personal Data

The European Commission’s Digital Omnibus proposal to impose additional limits on the right of access to personal data is not a technical clean-up of EU digital law, but a near verbatim reproduction of industry lobbying demands. The proposal restricts the very tool used by citizens, NGOs, journalists, workers, researchers, and civil society (most famously Max Schrems) to uncover systemic unlawful practices. Instead of strengthening EU digital competitiveness, the proposal threatens to dismantle a tool of counter-power and a cornerstone of data protection.