BRUSSELS, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Privacy activists say

proposed changes to Europe's landmark privacy law, including

making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans' personal

data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the

legislation.

The changes proposed by the European Commission are part of

a drive to simplify a slew of laws adopted in recent years on

technology, environmental and financial issues which have in

turn faced pushback from companies and the U.S. government.

EU antitrust chief Henna Virkkunen will present the Digital

Omnibus, in effect proposals to cut red tape and overlapping

legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the

Artificial Intelligence Act, the e-Privacy Directive and the

Data Act, on November 19.

According to the plans, Google, Meta Platforms ( META )

, OpenAI and other tech companies may be allowed to use

Europeans' personal data to train their AI models based on

legitimate interest.

In addition, companies may be exempted from the ban on

processing special categories of personal data "in order not to

disproportionately hinder the development and operation of AI

and taking into account the capabilities of the controller to

identify and remove special categories of personal data".

"The draft Digital Omnibus proposes countless changes to

many different articles of the GDPR. In combination this amounts

to a death by a thousand cuts," Austrian privacy group noyb said

in a statement.

Noyb is known for filing complaints against American

companies such as Apple ( AAPL ), Alphabet and Meta that have

triggered several investigations and resulted in billions of

dollars in fines.

"This would be a massive downgrading of Europeans' privacy

10 years after the GDPR was adopted," noyb's Max Schrems said.

European Digital Rights, an association of civil and human

rights organisations across Europe, slammed a proposal to merge

the ePrivacy Directive, known as the cookie law that resulted in

the proliferation of cookie consent pop-ups, into the GDPR.

"These proposals would change how the EU protects what

happens inside your phone, computer and connected devices," EDRi

policy advisor Itxaso Dominguez de Olazabal wrote in a LinkedIn

post.

"That means access to your device could rely on legitimate

interest or broad exemptions like security, fraud detection or

audience measurement," she said.

The proposals would need to be thrashed out with EU

countries and European Parliament in the coming months before

they can be implemented.