The Silent Revolution to the GDPR in the last Years of EU Digital ’Acts’

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Year: 2025

Speaker

Gianclaudio Malgieri is an Associate Professor of Law & Technology at Leiden University, where he conducts research at the eLaw Center for Law and Digital Technologies. He is also Co-Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub, Managing Editor of Computer Law and Security Review, and coordinator of VULNERA, an international observatory on vulnerability in data protection. Gianclaudio serves as an External Ethics Expert for the European Commission and sits on advisory boards of EPIC.org and CAIDP. His research focuses on data protection, privacy, AI regulation, and digital rights. He leads RESOCIAL, a major Dutch-funded project on vulnerability and resilience on social media. Gianclaudio has authored over 90 publications, including the monograph Vulnerability and Data Protection Law (OUP, 2023), and his work has been cited by major global media and institutions. He holds a PhD from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and law degrees from the University of Pisa and Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies.

Topic

In this EU-presentation, Gianclaudio Malgieri explores what he calls the “silent revolution” of the GDPR in light of recent EU digital legislation. Delivered at a Fundamental Rights lecture in March 2025, the session unpacks how new EU laws—including the AI Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the Data Governance Act—have reshaped key pillars of data protection without formally amending the GDPR.

The presentation provides a detailed overview of these changes, such as enhanced transparency for high-risk AI systems, the introduction of new consent standards, restrictions on sensitive data profiling, and an expanded right to data portability. Malgieri also examines the evolving role of data subject representatives and the growing importance of impact assessments that consider risks to fundamental rights.

A notable feature is his analysis of the “Right to Explanation” in automated decision-making, recently...