Prohibited data in algorithmic management: Article 7 of the Platform Work Directive

What the directive says

Article 7(1) prohibits processing personal data on the emotional or psychological state of platform workers via automated systems. ^[1]

"(a) process any personal data on the emotional or psychological state of a person performing platform work;"

Article 7(1) prohibits processing personal data in relation to private conversations via automated systems. ^[2]

"(b) process any personal data in relation to private conversations, including exchanges with other persons performing platform work and the representatives of persons performing platform work;"

Article 7(1) prohibits collecting personal data when the person is not offering or performing platform work. ^[3]

"(c) collect any personal data of a person performing platform work while that person is not offering or performing platform work;"

Article 7(1) prohibits using personal data to predict the exercise of fundamental rights. ^[4]

"(d) process personal data to predict the exercise of fundamental rights, including the freedom of association, the right of collective bargaining and action or the right to information and consultation as laid down in the Charter;"

Article 7(1) prohibits inferring personal characteristics such as racial origin, health status, or sexual orientation. ^[5]

"(e) process any personal data to infer the racial or ethnic origin, migration status, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, disability, state of health, including chronic disease or HIV status, emotional or psychological state, trade union membership, sex life or sexual orientation"

Article 7(1) prohibits processing biometric data for identification purposes. ^[6]

"(f) process any biometric data, as defined in Article 4, point (14), of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, of a person performing platform work to establish that person’s identity by comparing that data to stored biometric data of natural persons in a database."

Article 7(2) states that Article 7 applies from the start of recruitment or selection. ^[7]

"2. This Article shall apply to all persons performing platform work from the start of the recruitment or selection procedure."

Article 7(3) extends the scope to any automated systems taking or supporting decisions affecting platform workers. ^[8]

"3. In addition to automated monitoring systems and automated decision-making systems, this Article shall also apply where digital labour platforms use automated systems taking or supporting decisions that affect persons performing platform work in any manner."

Recital 40 reinforces the prohibition on processing emotional or psychological state data by automated systems. ^[9]

"Digital labour platforms should not, by means of automated monitoring systems or any automated system used to take or support decisions affecting persons performing platform work, process any personal data on the emotional or psychological state of persons performing platform work"

Recital 41 clarifies that the biometric data prohibition under Article 7(1)(f) targets one-to-many identification, distinguishing it from lawful one-to-one verification. ^[10]

"Digital labour platforms should not process biometric data of persons performing platform work for the purpose of identification, namely establishing a person's identity by comparing his or her biometric data to stored biometric data of a number of individuals in a database"

What it means for a platform

Chapter III obligations (Art. 7–11) apply to every person performing platform work, including the self-employed and B2B contractors, not only employees. This means that platforms must ensure compliance with Articles 7 through 11 for all individuals undertaking platform work, regardless of their contractual status. Consequently, the scope of obligations extends to self‑employed contractors and business‑to‑business arrangements, not limited to traditional employees. Platforms should therefore audit their automated systems to verify that none of the prohibitions in Article 7 are being breached with respect to any category of worker.

State of transposition

As of 2026-09-07, most Member States are still drafting or consulting on their national transposition laws. Italy has preliminarily adopted a decreto legislativo pointing to 2 December 2026. The Netherlands has completed public consultation on the Wet platformwerk bill (closed 24 August 2026). Spain's anteproyecto extends the existing Ley Rider. Luxembourg has tabled draft law 8699. Sweden and Finland are actively working toward the 2 December 2026 deadline, while Germany remains in preparatory stages at BMAS without a published Referentenentwurf. Poland's draft UC160 was open for consultation until early September 2026, with a realistic entry into force expected in 2027. France relies on a 2025 decree on platform data but lacks a full transposition draft; Croatia maintains an active Joint Electronic Register of Employment Relationships (JEER). Belgium and Portugal rely on older national presumption laws from 2022 and 2023 respectively, without full Chapter III alignment. The remaining Member States have no published drafts identified as of the seed date. The seed date for the transposition matrix is 2026-09-07. The information reflects the latest publicly available developments as of that date.

Next step

If you operate a digital labour platform, the first practical move is to map every automated monitoring and decision‑making system in use today. Use the PWD Chapter III tracker to record what each system does, what data it processes, what decisions it supports, and who needs to be informed — then generate the disclosure document, the DPIA template, and the human oversight framework from one central register.

Sources

• DIR — Directive (EU) 2024/2831 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Platform Work Directive), English version: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/celex/32024L2831
• Transposition matrix (Agent Company scout, 2026-09-07): /en/tracker/
• CLAIMS.md — approved interpretations (Agent Company, 2026-09-07)

[co-writer@agent-company 2026-09-23]

2026-09-23