DefinitionIn forcev1.0.0

Special categories of personal data

The sensitive data categories from the GDPR and related European rules, imported here because the AI Act attaches both a prohibition and a narrow exception to them.

The official source remains authoritative. This is general information about obligations and not legal advice. See this object on the map

Address and citation

This object has an address of its own that is never renamed or reused. Store the identifier in your own file, not the title or the link.

Identifier: praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens
Payload hash (sha256): d064259aa75aae71e530774d78a8d3b15f97468076b11be82f686cde95fdf357

Citation line

Praxikon, "Special categories of personal data", praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens@1.0.0, dataset praxikon:sys:registry:dataset:ai-act-implementation-graph 2.1.0 (schema 1.4.0), effective_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z, known_at 2026-08-14T00:00:00.000Z, sha256 d064259aa75aae71e530774d78a8d3b15f97468076b11be82f686cde95fdf357

Version: 1.0.0
Legal time (effective_at): 8 August 2026
Knowledge time (known_at): 8 August 2026
Closed on: Not closed
Application date: 1 August 2024
Topics: definitions

Review status: Placed against the official source (8 August 2026). Next check due by 4 February 2027. The check date is the knowledge date of this version; no later recheck has been recorded.

What this object links to

Every relation appears below as a path: from the source with its locator, through the conditions and exceptions of the object carrying the relation, to the consequence. A locator belongs to a statement in the data and not to a relation, so the source is the source anchor of the carrying object.

What this object is about

2 of 2 shown

The object is about this role. Undifferentiated: it does not follow that the duty rests on this role.

Source
Official fact on this object, with its locator.
- EU Artificial Intelligence Act 2024/1689
  Locator: Article 3(37)
  praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689
  Open official source
Via
No condition or exception recorded on this object.
Consequence
- ActorDeployer
  praxikon:eu:ai-act:actor:deployer
- ActorProvider of an AI system
  praxikon:eu:ai-act:actor:provider

What this object states

Official fact

Attributable to a named primary source, with a locator. Where they differ, the official source prevails.

Article 3(37) defines special categories of personal data as the categories of personal data referred to in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2016/680 and Article 10(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
- Locator: Article 3(37)praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689Open official source

Our interpretation

Our own reading. It can change without the law changing, and it is not the position of a supervisory authority.

The definition cross-refers, but the AI Act gives it two independent consequences. First, it touches Article 5, enforceable since 2 February 2025: biometric categorisation that infers individually sensitive attributes such as race, political opinions, trade union membership, religion, sex life or sexual orientation is prohibited. Second, Article 10(5) contains an exception permitting processing of special category data where strictly necessary to detect and correct bias in high-risk systems. That exception is consistently read too broadly. It applies only to high-risk systems, only where other means demonstrably do not suffice, with technical limits on reuse and transmission, and with deletion once the bias has been addressed. It is not a general basis for starting to collect sensitive attributes because you want to run fairness measurements.
- Locator: Article 3(37)praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689Open official source

Recommended step

A practical step we consider appropriate. Not an obligation following from the Regulation.

Record whether you rely on Article 10(5), for which high-risk system, why synthetic or anonymised data do not suffice, which technical and organisational safeguards apply, who has access, and at what point the data are deleted. Align this with your data protection officer and cross-reference from your AI dossier to the corresponding data protection impact assessment.
- Locator: Article 3(37)praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689Open official source

When this applies

No condition recorded on this object.

When this does not apply

No exception recorded on this object.

Referring to this object

Citation block

Copy this reference into your advice, article or file. The identifier, the version and the hash keep the statement findable later, even once the dataset has moved on.

Reference

Praxikon, "Special categories of personal data",
praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens@1.0.0,
dataset praxikon:sys:registry:dataset:ai-act-implementation-graph 2.1.0 (schema 1.4.0),
effective_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z, known_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z,
sha256 d064259aa75aae71e530774d78a8d3b15f97468076b11be82f686cde95fdf357,
https://www.praxikon.com/en/verkenner/definition/definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens
(https://www.praxikon.com/api/v1/entities?id=praxikon%3Aeu%3Aai-act%3Adefinition%3Adefinitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens&effective_at=2026-08-08&known_at=2026-08-08&lang=en, accessed 2026-08-23)

Short form

praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens@1.0.0 (sha256 d064259a)

BibTeX

@misc{praxikon-eu-ai-act-definition-definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens-1-0-0,
  author       = {{Praxikon}},
  title        = {Special categories of personal data},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {1.0.0},
  number       = {praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens},
  howpublished = {AI Act Change \& Evidence Graph, dataset 2.1.0, schema 1.4.0},
  note         = {effective_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z; known_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z; sha256 d064259aa75aae71e530774d78a8d3b15f97468076b11be82f686cde95fdf357},
  url          = {https://www.praxikon.com/en/verkenner/definition/definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens},
  urldate      = {2026-08-23},
  language     = {en}
}

CSL JSON

[
  {
    "id": "praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens@1.0.0",
    "type": "dataset",
    "title": "Special categories of personal data",
    "container-title": "AI Act Change & Evidence Graph",
    "publisher": "Praxikon",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "number": "praxikon:eu:ai-act:definition:definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens",
    "URL": "https://www.praxikon.com/en/verkenner/definition/definitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens",
    "language": "en",
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2026,
          8,
          8
        ]
      ]
    },
    "accessed": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2026,
          8,
          23
        ]
      ]
    },
    "note": "dataset praxikon:sys:registry:dataset:ai-act-implementation-graph 2.1.0; schema 1.4.0; effective_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z; known_at 2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z; sha256 d064259aa75aae71e530774d78a8d3b15f97468076b11be82f686cde95fdf357; retrieved_from https://www.praxikon.com/api/v1/entities?id=praxikon%3Aeu%3Aai-act%3Adefinition%3Adefinitie-bijzondere-categorieen-persoonsgegevens&effective_at=2026-08-08&known_at=2026-08-08&lang=en; licence https://www.praxikon.com/nl/legal/terms"
  }
]

How to verify a reference later is set out in the methodology. Terms

For agents and integrations

This page and the machine output come from the same object and the same two time axes.

Open as JSON Open as JSON-LD Read the methodology