CJEU Rules On Interpretation Of EU GDPR Special Categories Of Data

Background

On 1 August 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") issued a decision ("Decision") clarifying how the indirect disclosure of sexual orientation data is protected as special category data under Article 9 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). "Special Category Data" is defined within Article 9(1) of the GDPR and includes (for example) a data subject's racial or ethnic origin or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation. The processing of such sensitive personal data is expressly prohibited, unless the processing is exempted from the prohibition in the sense of Article 9(2) GDPR.

The case

The facts of the case involved the head of a Lithuanian public institution that receives public funds, which required by law, that individual to provide a declaration of private interests. That declaration was then published on the website of the Lithuanian Supreme Commission for Service Ethics.