Art. 4a Processing of special categories of personal data for bias detection and correction | AI act regulation | AI act

This article carves out a narrow, conditional exception to the general prohibition on processing special categories of personal data, specifically to allow bias detection and correction in AI systems.

It is directly linked to Article 10, which governs data governance requirements for high-risk AI systems, and extends similar permissions — under strict conditions — to a broader set of operators beyond just high-risk AI providers.

The article is careful to frame this as an exceptional permission, not a requirement, and layers its own conditions on top of existing EU data protection law.

Important points:

Providers of high-risk AI systems may process special categories of personal data for bias detection and correction only where doing so is strictly necessary and cannot be achieved through other means such as synthetic or anonymised data.
The processing is subject to a cumulative set of safeguards, including pseudonymisation, access controls, prohibition on third-party transfers, deletion once bias is corrected, and documented justification in processing records.
Providers and deployers of other AI systems and models, and deployers of high-risk AI systems, may also access this exception under the same conditions, but this does not create any obligation on them to carry out bias detection and correction.

1. To the extent strictly necessary to ensure bias detection and correction in relation to high-risk AI systems in accordance with Article 10(2), points (f) and (g), of this Regulation, providers of such systems may exceptionally process special categories of personal data, subject to appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons. In addition to the provisions set out in Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725 and Directive (EU) 2016/680, as applicable, all the following conditions shall be met in order for such processing to occur:
  1. the bias detection and correction cannot be effectively fulfilled by processing other data, including synthetic or anonymised data;
  2. the special categories of personal data are subject to technical limitations on the re-use of personal data, and state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures, including pseudonymisation;
  3. the special categories of personal data are subject to measures to ensure that the personal data processed are secured and protected, subject to suitable safeguards, including strict controls and documentation of the access, to avoid misuse and to ensure that only authorised persons have access to those personal data with appropriate confidentiality obligations;
  4. the special categories of personal data are not transmitted, transferred or otherwise accessed by other parties;
  5. the special categories of personal data are deleted once the bias has been corrected or the personal data has reached the end of its retention period, whichever comes first; and
  6. the records of processing activities pursuant to Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725 and Directive (EU) 2016/680 include the reasons why the processing of special categories of personal data was strictly necessary to detect and correct biases, and why that objective could not be achieved by processing other data.
1. Providers and deployers of other AI systems and models and deployers of high-risk AI systems may exceptionally process special categories of personal data to the extent that:
  1. such processing is strictly necessary to ensure bias detection and correction in view of possible biases that are likely to affect the health and safety of persons, have a negative impact on fundamental rights or lead to discrimination prohibited pursuant to Union law, especially where data outputs influence inputs for future operations; and
  2. all of the conditions and safeguards set out in paragraph 1 are applied.
2. This paragraph does not create any obligation to conduct such bias detection and correction.