THE EQUILIBRIUM JOURNAL / EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
The EU Data Act’s general application date arrives, making access and switching terms a current contractual issue.
1–30 September 2025
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What happened
12 September 2025 · European Union
The Data Act becomes applicable
General application
The Data Act began generally applying, strengthening users’ access to data generated by connected products and related services and addressing business data-sharing and cloud switching. Specific provisions and transition rules still need to be checked; this is not unrestricted ownership of every dataset.
Source: European Commission · Data Act gives users control over connected-device data ↗
30 September 2025 · United Kingdom
Data preservation for child-death inquiries
Commencement
A UK Data (Use and Access) Act provision commenced enabling Ofcom preservation notices in connection with coroners’ or procurators fiscal’s investigations into a child’s death.
The Malaysian lens
Our Malaysian business implication is that access, deletion and preservation cannot be reduced to a single “data ownership” clause. Exporters, cloud customers and service providers should identify which data is requested, by whom, for what purpose and under which jurisdiction.
QUESTION TO ASK
Can the organisation honour a valid access or preservation request without losing track of confidentiality and privacy restrictions?
Watch / next step
Check product scope and contract dates. Preserve evidence of requests and responses, especially where operational data includes personal information.
Sources checked on 20 September 2026. Official sources are preferred; news reports are identified as such. Maintained source pages may contain later updates. Check the enacted text, applicable jurisdiction and current position before acting. General information, not legal advice.
