The Dirty Cop Problem

excerpt from the NYTIMES.com
August 7, 2005
Europe Zips Lips; U.S. Sells ZIPs
By ERIC DASH
European data protection policies emerged in the early 1970's, when the German state of Hesse enacted the first set of data privacy laws.

"This was still a generation with memory of World War II that knew how Nazis and fascists would use personal information against their enemies," said Evan Hendricks, the editor of Privacy Times, an advocacy newsletter. "If you were going to protect liberty, you had to ensure there was fairness in the protection of information."