Monday, October 19, 2026
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Tag: EU-AI-Act

4 articles

Policy & Regulation

UN Secretary-General recommends banning coercive use of neurotechnology in justice systems

In a report to the UN General Assembly dated 27 August 2026 (A/81/351), Secretary-General António Guterres recommends that member states prohibit the compulsory or coercive use of neurotechnology in the administration of justice, including brain-based deception detection, predictive applications, decoding applications that claim to read thoughts, intentions or memories, neuromodulation, and arbitrary or unlawful cognitive surveillance and monitoring. He asks states to recognise neural data as highly sensitive personal data with the highest level of legal protection and clear limits on its collection, processing, sale, storage, retention, reuse and sharing, to require free, prior, informed, explicit and revocable consent for any use of neurotechnology in justice settings, and to urge neurotechnology companies to carry out human rights due diligence. The report, requested by the General Assembly in December 2024, warns, citing outside research, that neural data gathered by consumer devices may be accessed by state authorities or introduced as evidence. Its recommendations do not bind governments.

Oct 11

Policy & Regulation

California bans employers from using AI tools to collect workers' neural data

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1883 on 30 September 2026, the last day he could act on bills this session. From 1 January 2027 the law, by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), bars employers from using workplace surveillance tools that use artificial intelligence to collect employees' neural data or to recognise, infer or predict their emotional state. It defines neural data as information generated by measuring activity in an employee's central or peripheral nervous system, covers public as well as private employers, and allows penalties of up to $500 per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors. Tools used to ensure safety, and some federally regulated aerospace and defence work, are exempt. In his signing message Newsom said the law lacks key definitions and asked the Legislature to refine it. Three days earlier he vetoed AB 1542, leaving consumers with an opt-out over the sale of the same category of data.

Oct 2

Policy & Regulation

China issues a medical-device standard for AI processing of EEG data in brain-computer interfaces

China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has issued what state news agency Xinhua characterises as the world's first medical-device standard covering AI-processed electroencephalogram (EEG) data in brain-computer interfaces, announced on 14 September 2026. The standard was drafted by the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) under an expedited procedure and becomes effective on 1 September 2027. Scope: quality requirements and evaluation methods for EEG datasets used by AI algorithms in BCI medical devices, covering collection, processing, annotation, storage, and access across R&D, production, and quality-control stages. Named NMPA and NIFDC officials: Yuan Peng (Deputy Director, NMPA Department of Medical Device Registration), Li Shu (Deputy Director, NIFDC medical device institute), Zheng Jia (Deputy Director, NIFDC Institute for Medical Device Standardization). This is the third BCI-related medical-device standard issued by China in twelve months, following 2025 standards on BCI terminology and on test methods for implantable closed-loop neural stimulators. The US FDA has no BCI-specific AI/EEG data-quality standard. The EU has no BCI-specific standard, only horizontal AI Act coverage of medical BCI as high-risk. On the narrow AI-EEG-BCI slice, China's world-first framing holds up.

Sep 17

Policy & Regulation

Germany's data protection commissioner presses Europe for tighter rules on bidirectional brain-computer interfaces

Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, the outgoing German Federal Data Protection and Freedom of Information Commissioner (BfDI), used a BCI-themed academic conference at the University of Bonn on 4 September 2026 to press for tighter European handling of neural data. Her formal underpinning is a Berlin Group Working Paper on Emerging Neurotechnologies published on 15 May 2025 through BfDI, which invokes GDPR Article 9 (health and biometric data) and the EU AI Act (Article 5 subliminal-manipulation ban, Annex III high-risk classification for medical BCI) as existing legal ground. The intervention lands one month before Specht-Riemenschneider steps down for health reasons on 30 September 2026. Her Bundestag-elected successor Prof. Dr. Moritz Hennemann of Freiburg takes office on 1 October 2026, and his own position on neurodata is not publicly disclosed.

Sep 6