Description

Implemented AI Act including data protection measures for Annex III "high-risk" AI systems

On 2 August 2026, the regulation laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act), including data protection measures for "high-risk" AI systems prescribed by Annex III of the Act, enters into force. The AI Act is based on a risk-based management approach and introduces data protection obligations depending on the level of risk associated with the AI system. The Act includes a ban on cognitive behavioural manipulation, the untargeted scrapping of facial images from the internet, social scoring, biometric categorisation to infer sensitive data, such as sexual orientation or religious beliefs, and some cases of predictive policing for individuals. Further, the Act establishes certain data governance practices for training and testing data, such as the fact that they should be relevant, accurate, and sufficiently representative. The Act is generally implemented on 2 August 2026, though some sections are subject to variable implementation periods. For high-risk AI systems according to Article 6(1), the data protection measures only enter into effect from 2 August 2027.

Original source

Scope

Policy Area
Data governance
Policy Instrument
Data protection regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
ML and AI development
Implementation Level
supranational
Government Branch
legislature
Government Body
parliament

Complete timeline of this policy change

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2021-04-21
under deliberation

On 21 April 2021, the European Commission published its proposal for laying down harmonised rules o…

2022-12-06
under deliberation

On 6 December 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted its general approach on the Artificia…

2023-05-11
under deliberation

On 11 May 2023, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIB…

2023-06-14
under deliberation

On 14 May 2023, the European Parliament adopted its position on the Act on Harmonised Rules for Art…

2023-12-09
under deliberation

On 9 December 2023, the Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted a provisional agre…

2024-03-13
under deliberation

On 13 March 2024, the European Parliament passed the regulation laying down harmonised rules on Art…

2024-05-21
adopted

On 21 May 2024, the Council of the European Union adopted the regulation laying down harmonised rul…

2024-08-01
in grace period

On 1 August 2024, the regulation laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificia…

2025-02-02
in force

On 2 February 2025, the prohibition of prohibited practices with data protection implications in th…

2026-08-02
in force

On 2 August 2026, the regulation laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificia…

2027-08-02
in force

On 2 August 2027, the regulation laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificia…