Thomas Le Bonniec, a doctoral researcher at DiPLab, has published an op-ed in Le Nouvel Obs criticizing the European Commission’s proposed “Omnibus” digital directive. In his piece, he argues that the directive would weaken key elements of EU digital law while primarily benefiting large U.S. technology companies, including Meta, Palantir Technologies, and Alphabet. Le Bonniec situates the proposal in the broader context of the European Union’s continued reliance on American software and digital infrastructure. According to his analysis, the Omnibus directive does not reduce this dependency but instead reinforces it. He questions whether the European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen and Vice-President for technological sovereignty Henna Virkkunen, is capable of advancing genuine digital autonomy under these conditions. The op-ed also highlights the potential impact on privacy and data protection. Le Bonniec warns that the directive could significantly undermine existing safeguards, without delivering the regulatory simplification or innovation gains promised by the Commission. Ultimately, he frames the Omnibus directive as a political choice with strategic consequences. As long as the EU follows a path of regulatory alignment that favors U.S. digital interests, he argues, it risks entrenching its dependence on Washington. Rejecting the Omnibus directive, Le Bonniec concludes, would be a first step toward building a credible and independent European digital sovereignty.

We are delighted to announce that DiPLab PhD researcher Thomas Le Bonniec contributed the France country analysis to a significant new report on worker data rights under the GDPR, published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Future of Work programme and AK Vorarlberg. Read the full report: Worker Data Rights under the GDPR and Beyond: Enforcement and Legal Mobilisation Across the EU Featuring contributions from leading national experts across Europe, the report presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of how workers’ data protection rights are enforced—and mobilized—across 10 EU Member States. It arrives at a critical juncture for European digital labor governance, as the EU navigates the Digital Omnibus, the Quality Jobs Act, and ongoing debates around a potential Directive on Algorithmic Management. The comparative analysis reveals several crucial insights: * Limited and fragmented enforcement: Workplace GDPR enforcement remains uneven across the EU, affecting both traditional data protection issues and emerging challenges related to algorithmic management. * Focus on traditional monitoring: Most enforcement cases still concern conventional forms of workplace surveillance—CCTV, email monitoring, GPS tracking—while data-intensive managerial practices, including algorithmic management systems, often remain under-enforced. However, promising enforcement initiatives are beginning to emerge in select Member States. * Underutilized collective mechanisms: Workers’ representatives could play a significantly stronger role in data protection, but existing mechanisms—including Article 80 GDPR—remain insufficient, inconsistently implemented across countries, or practically unused in practice. * Need for EU harmonization: The report emphasizes the urgent need for clearer EU-level harmonization and guidance on GDPR implementation and enforcement, more consistent reporting procedures and practices among Data Protection Authorities, preservation of the right of access under Article 15 GDPR (currently at risk under the Digital Omnibus proposal), and strengthening of collective data-protection rights in the workplace.

France Culture’s show Les Pieds sur Terre has devoted a recent episode to what has come to be known as the Siri scandal—the discovery that Apple’s voice assistant recorded private conversations without users’ knowledge. The episode, titled “Hey Siri, are you recording me?” [Dis Siri, est-ce que tu m’enregistres ?, in French], available for replay, features prominently the first-person account of DiPLab’s Thomas Le Bonniec, who partook in this system as part of the large workforce tasked with listening to and annotating Siri recordings. A PhD candidate at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Le Bonniec relates his experience which echoes that of hundreds of workers hired to sift through thousands of audio snippets, often recorded unintentionally: medical information, intimate details, sensitive data, and countless fragments of daily life. This role of data worker is often precarious, outsourced, and hidden. This occupation aligns with that of millions of AI trainers, click workers, and content moderators whose labor quietly powers today’s artificial intelligence systems. Their work sheds light on how AI systems rely on vast amounts of human-powered tasks, often carried out under poor working conditions and with limited recognition. Le Bonniec’s testimony contributes to a growing body of evidence emphasizing that behind every “automated” system stands a global labor force ensuring that AI functions as intended.

DiPLab’s Thomas Le Bonniec was interviewed by Radio Blackout, an autonomous Italian radio station based in Turin. He discussed the working conditions of AI trainers and the results of the DeepSeek policy memo published by DiPLab. The memo can be downloaded here: THE-HUMAN-COST-OF-DEEPSEEK