Article 9 — Processing of special categories of personal data

GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679

What does GDPR Article 9 say?

Short answer, straight from the official text

1. Processing of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life …

Source: GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, read 2026-08-14.

Official text

Read from the EU Publications Office for this CELEX number. The wording stands as published; nothing here is rewritten or summarised.

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1. Processing of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.

2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply if one of the following applies:

(a) the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes, except where Union or Member State law provide that the prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 may not be lifted by the data subject;

(b) processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law in so far as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;

(c) processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent;

The article continues in the official text.

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Other articles in this chapter

• Article 5
• Article 6
• Article 7
• Article 8
• Article 10
• Article 11

The same rule in other acts

These articles carry the same official heading. The wording is not identical; read each text at its own source.

• EUDPR Article 10 — Processing of special categories of personal data

Who does this apply to

The register names five roles. Open a role to see the duties this act places on it, each row with its article and its source.

• Cloud service provider

Does this apply to us?

• Do ai governance rules apply to a cloud provider?
• Do personal data rules apply to a cloud provider?
• Do cross-border data rules apply to a cloud provider?
• Do cybersecurity rules apply to a cloud provider?
• Do health data rules apply to a cloud provider?
• Do online platforms rules apply to a cloud provider?

All roles in the register · All questions by role

The text is quoted from the official source and is not legal advice. A national court reads the language version that binds in its jurisdiction.

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Machine-readable summaries for AI agents: /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt.