Regulators across EMEA accelerate data privacy reforms in 2026, introducing stricter rules for AI, enhanced online safety protections, and regional data transfer agreements amid rising digital challenges.
Data protection across EMEA moved quickly in the first half of 2026, with regulators responding to the spread of AI tools, tighter online safety expectations and a broader push to simplify compliance. In the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 brought a major tranche of privacy reforms into force on 5 February, changing rules on scientific research, legitimate interests, automated decision-making, complaints handling and enforcement. The Information Commissioner’s Office has also been revising its guidance on enforcement procedure, AI and international transfers, while the government has begun gathering evidence on how the new transfer regime is working in practice.
Several of the changes are designed to give organisations more certainty, but they also raise the compliance bar in practical terms. The UK’s updated framework creates a formal definition of scientific research, expands recognised legitimate interests in some cases and gives the ICO stronger powers, including stop notices and higher penalties for PECR breaches. The regulator has separately stressed that organisations using AI should carry out data protection impact assessments, establish a lawful basis for processing and ensure that any human oversight is meaningful rather than nominal.
Online safety has been another major theme. UK authorities are considering extra protections for children using AI chatbots, including limits on content, age verification and controls on tools that may give harmful mental health advice. The ICO and Ofcom have also said that self-declared age is usually not enough where children may face risk online, and that age assurance must be effective, proportionate and privacy-conscious. In parallel, the government has set out a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill that would widen the scope of cyber rules to managed IT services, data centres and some smart infrastructure, while requiring faster incident reporting and tougher sanctions.
Elsewhere in EMEA, the same pattern is visible: regulators are trying to keep pace with AI without weakening core data protection principles. The EU has advanced its Digital Omnibus and cybersecurity package, while the EDPB and EDPS have pushed for simplification without reducing fundamental rights. France’s CNIL has issued practical AI guidance focused on the development stage, and Germany has launched ReguLab, a sandbox intended to help organisations test data-driven projects with the regulator before launch. In the Middle East, the UAE and Oman have both introduced or completed new data and child-safety frameworks, and the Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar financial centres have moved towards reciprocal adequacy, making regional transfers easier.
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