This is infuriating. A leaked draft that quietly redefines “personal data” and strips out purpose limitation, accountability, and independent oversight is not a tiny technical fix, it is a full-on gutting of the GDPR and ePrivacy protections. If those changes stand, private companies and state actors get a much easier path to profile people on sexual orientation, ethnicity, political views and other deeply sensitive things. That is dangerous and morally obscene.

Who wins here? Not ordinary people. Big tech and ad firms do, because profiling and opaque data sharing become legal again. Regulators and courts lose teeth, and “consent” stays a paper tiger. This reeks of industry capture and political cowardice, and I am sick of seeing rights rolled back by stealthy drafting instead of debate.

If you care, do something: pressure your MEPs to reject any amendments that hollow out GDPR, support EDRi and other civil society groups, and pass the leaked draft around so national DPAs and journalists keep the heat on. Transparency now, not more quiet compromises that hand our data to the highest bidder.