Special categories of personal data require specific safeguards because, due to the nature of these categories, processing may pose significant risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.
This is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, as well as 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 .
Probably the most frequently processed category of this “special” data relates to health data, which is processed, for example, by medical institutions, but is also increasingly being processed by health applications or fitness trackers.