Aims,methods and achievements in European data protection1

The protection of personal data represents one of recent most emerging legal issues. On one hand, the privacy and the discretion of individuals are challenged by various new means of data collection and communication. On the other hand, the growth and development of the information economy is heavily dependent on the level of freedom of business units in gathering, processing and distribution of various kinds of information. In this short notice, we will try to summarize the experience with the data protection laws with respect to their basic teleology.