Computer & Communication Industry Association
PublishedMarch 11, 2025

AI Training Data: Privacy and Scraping in Europe

As the European Union struggles to find the right balance in artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, a crucial question looms: Can Europe stay competitive without enough training data?

In two video interviews, legal expert Etienne Drouard and CCIA Europe’s Daniel Friedlaender unpack the tension between privacy laws and AI development. Does scraping public data really impact your privacy? Are outdated data protection regulations putting Europe at a disadvantage? Discover what’s at stake in the race for AI leadership.

Does Data Scraping Really Impact Privacy?

Etienne Drouard (Partner at law firm Hogan Lovells) explains why scraping publicly available data for training AI models isn’t a privacy violation. Drouard also breaks down the complex interplay between the EU AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), emphasising why regulators must align their interpretations.

Can Europe Compete Without Enough Training Data?

For Europe to build diverse, unbiased, and multilingual AI models, developers need access to quality training data. Daniel Friedlaender (Senior Vice President and Head of Office, CCIA Europe) explains why AI innovation depends on data diversity – and how outdated privacy approaches could put Europe at a disadvantage in the global AI race.

These interviews were recorded at the third gathering of the European AI Roundtable on 4 December 2024, hosted by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe).

Boniface de Champris

Senior Policy Manager, CCIA Europe
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