meta_id 3306344

On July 8, 2026, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted three sets of guidelines addressing key data protection challenges in emerging technologies. The guidelines clarify anonymisation standards, establish web scraping compliance requirements for generative artificial intelligence (AI) development, and finalise blockchain processing standards. The anonymisation guidelines establish clear criteria for determining when data is truly anonymous, incorporating the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling in case C-413/23 P EDPS v SRB (September 4, 2025). Data is anonymous when it does not relate to an identified or identifiable natural person. The EDPB provides a practical framework using two approaches: a contextual approach reflecting full legal nuances, and a simplified approach offering greater convenience. Both assess three criteria—no record isolation, no linkage, and no inference—to determine if anonymisation is successful. The web scraping guidelines clarify General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance when extracting personal data at scale for AI training. The EDPB emphasises that the GDPR applies to web scraping involving personal data collection, storage, organisation, and retrieval. Controllers must observe purpose limitation and transparency principles, implement data minimisation measures, and validate data before use. The guidelines address special categories of personal data, requiring both lawful bases under Article 6 and exceptions under Article 9(2) of the GDPR. The EDPB recommends scraping only from reliable sources and recording timestamps. The finalised blockchain guidelines help organisations ensure GDPR compliance when using distributed ledger technologies. The EDPB explains blockchain architectures and their implications for personal data processing. Both the anonymisation and web scraping guidelines are subject to public consultation until October 30, 2026. The EDPB released a consultation outcome report and track changes version for the blockchain guidelines.