Some online reading suggestions on the history of data protection law:

• Presser, J., Ondergang: De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse Jodendom, 1940-1945, Martinus Nijhoff, 1965.
• Truesdell, L. E., The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census, 1890-1940: With Outlines of Actual Tabulation Programs, US Bureau of the Census, January 1965.
• Krause, Harry D., ‘The Right to Privacy in Germany—Pointers for American Legislation?‘, Duke Law Journal, pp. 481-530, 1965.
• The computer and invasion of privacy: Hearings before a subcommittee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, First session, July 2, 3, 4, 7, 23 and September 23. Part 1 and Part 2, 1965.
• The computer and invasion of privacy: Hearings before a subcommittee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, Second session, July 26, 27, and 28. Part 1 and Part 2, 1966.
• Horton, Frank, ‘Horton Cites Potential Privacy Invasion by Proposed Central Data System‘, 5 August 1966.
• Armer, Paul, Computer Aspects of Technological Change, Automation, and Economic Progress, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966.
• Karst, Kenneth L., ‘The Files: Legal Controls Over the Accuracy and Accessibility of Stored Personal Data‘, Law and Contemporary Problems, 31, pp. 342-376, Spring 1966.
• European Court of Human Rights, Travaux Préparatoires to the European Convention on Human Rights: Information document on Article 8, accessible via this document, May 1967.
• Strömholm, Stig, ‘Right to privacy and rights of the personality: A comparative survey‘, Working paper prepared for the Nordic Conference on privacy organized by the International Commission of Jurists, Stockholm May 1967.
• Nordic Conference on the Right to Privacy, 1967.
• United States Senate Hearings on computer privacy, held on 14 and 15 March 1967.
• Ervin Jr., Sam, J, The computer and individual privacy, speech delivered before the American Management Association, New. York City, 6 March 1967.
• Harrison, Annette, The problem of privacy in the computer age: An annotated bibliography, RAND Corporation, 1967.
• Armer, Paul, Privacy Aspects of the Cashless and Checkless Society Testimony Before the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, 1968.
• Datenschutzgesetz, 7 October 1970, § 6, 1 Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Hessen 625, 1970.
• J., P., ‘IIIe Colloque international sur la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme (Bruxelles, 30 septembre-3 octobre 1970)‘, Revue internationale de droit comparé. Vol. 22 N°3, Juillet-septembre, pp. 539-541, 1970.
• Desabie Jacques, ‘L’Insee entreprend d’automatiser le répertoire des personnes‘, Economie et statistique, n°10, pp. 69-71, Mars 1970.
• Hellman, Jay John, Privacy and information systems: An argument and an implementation, RAND, 1970.
• Braibant, Guy, ‘La protection des droits individuels au regard du développement de l’informatique’, Revue internationale de droit comparé, 23(4), Octobre-décembre 1971. pp. 793-817.
• Federal Data Banks, Computers, and the Bill of Rights: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-second Congress, February 23-25, and March 2-15 and 17, 1971.
• Steinmüller, Lutterbeck, Mallmann, Harbort, Kolb und Schneider, Grundfragen des Datenschutzes, in Anlage zu BT-Drucks. VI/3826, July 1971.
• Tätigskeitbericht LfD Hessen 1971/72 (7/1495 vom 29.03.1972), 1972.
• International Commission of Jurists, The protection of privacy, UNESCO, 1972.
• Human rights and scientific and technological development : respect for the privacy of individuals and the integrity and sovereignty of nations in the light of advances in recording and other techniques : report of the Secretary-General, 1973.
• Human rights and the threat to privacy, An International inquiry by the United Nations, 1973.

• The Threat to privacy: 25th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The UNESCO Courier, July 1973.
• The Swedish Data Bank Statute and regulation of May 11, 1973, as translated in English for the Library of Congress, Law Library. 1973.

• Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens, Report of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, July 1973.
• Morris, Grant, ‘Computer Data Bank-Privacy Controversy Revisited: An Analysis and an Administrative Proposal‘, Cath. UL Rev. 22(3), 1973, pp. 628-650.
• Forstmoser, Peter, ‘Datenbanken und Persönlichkeitsschutz‘, SJZ 70 (1974) 217 ff., 1974.
• Messadié, Gérald, La fin de la vie privée, , 1974.
• Privacy: The collection, use, and computerization of personal data, Joint hearings before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Privacy and Information Systems of the Committee on Government Operations and the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, second session … June 18, 19, and 20, 1974 v.13 (pt. 1), 1974.
• Privacy: The collection, use, and computerization of personal data, Joint hearings before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Privacy and Information Systems of the Committee on Government Operations and the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, second session … June 18, 19, and 20, 1974 v.13 (pt. 2), 1974.
• Armer, Paul, ‘Computer technology and surveillance‘, Computers and People, 24(9), 8-11, 1975.

• Rapport de la Commission informatique et libertés (‘Rapport Tricot’), La Documentation française, 1975.
• Home Office, Computers and Privacy (White Paper), Cmnd. 6353, and Home Office, Computers: Safeguards for Privacy (White Paper), Cmnd. 6354 (HMSO, London, 1975), document including draft, HMSO, London, 1975.
• Loiodice, Aldo, ‘Informatica, banche di dati e diritto dell’informazione‘, Rivista Internazionale Informatica e Diritto, fasc. 1, pp. 118-161, 1975.
• Privacy and Protection of Personal Information in Europe: Privacy Developments in Europe and their Implications for United States Policy : A Staff Report of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, 1975.
• Douglas, A. S., ‘The UK privacy White Paper 1975‘, In Proceedings of the June 7-10, 1976, National Computer Conference and Exposition, pp. 33-38, 1976.
• Legislative history of the Privacy Act of 1974, S. 3418 (Public Law 93-579) source book on privacy, September 1976.
• Goldstein, Robert C. ‘A methodology for evaluating alternative technical and information management approaches to privacy requirements‘, Dept. of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1976.
• Higueras, Manuel Heredero, ‘Informática y libertad: La respuesta de los juristas a un problema de nuestro tiempo‘, Documentación Administrativa, 1976.
• Larsen, Kent S. (ed.), Privacy, a public concern: A resource document based on the proceedings of a Seminar on Privacy, sponsored by the Domestic Council Committee on the Right of Privacy and the Council of State Governments, 1976.
• Policy issues in data protection and privacy: Concepts and perspectives – Proceedings of the OECD seminar 24th to 26th June 1974, OECD, 1976.
• Westin, Alan F., Computers, health records, and citizen rights, sponsored by the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, National Bureau of Standards (NBS), 1976.
• Pettiti, Louis E., ‘Les protections juridiques et législatives dans le domaine de la protection de la vie privée et du contrôle des banques de données‘, Rivista Internazionale Informatica e Diritto, 1977, fasc. 1, pp. 92-104.
• The Privacy Protection Study Commission, Personal Privacy in an Information Society, (pdf here), July 1977.
• Ader Gérard, ‘Secret et statistiques d’entreprises dans la communauté européenne‘, Economie et statistique, n°100, Mai, pp. 85-87, 1978.
• Dalenius, Tore, Information privacy and statistics : A topical bibliography, 1978.
• Wilk, Charles K., Selected Foreign National Data Protection Laws and Bills. Vol. 78. No. 19. US Department of Commerce, Office of Telecommunications, 1978.
• Kirchner, J, ‘Terminology Seen Snagging Data Flow Efforts’ & ‘U.S. Says It Won’t Support Draft Transborder Data Pact‘, Computerworld, vol. 12, no. 46, p. 20-21, 1978.
• Kosik, Jan, Technika komputerowa w ewidencji ludności a ochrona cywilnoprawna człowieka, 1978.
• Casey, Kathleen, International barriers to data flows: Background report, Washington, US Gov. Print Off., 1979.
• Pérez Luño, Antonio-Enrique, ‘La protección de la intimidad frente a la informática en la Constitución Española de 1978‘, Revista de estudios políticos, 9, pp. 59-72, 1979.
• Streil, Jochen, ‘S. Simitis, O. Dammann, O. Mallmann, H.J. Reh, Kommentar zum Bundesdaten schutzgesetz‘, Revue internationale de droit comparé. Vol. 31 N°1, Janvier-mars, pp. 252-254, 1979.
• ‘Respect de la vie privée et accès des chercheurs aux données individuelles‘, Economie et statistique, n°108, Février, pp. 65-69, 1979.
• International data flow: Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, second session, March 10, 13, 27, and April 21, 1980.
• Jacqué, Jean-Paul, ‘La Convention pour la protection des personnes à l’égard du traitement automatisé des données à caractère personnel’, Annuaire français de droit international, volume 26, pp. 773-789, 1980.
• Lunde, Anders S., The person-number systems of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Israel, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of Health Research, Statistics, and Technology, National Center for Health Statistics, 1980.
• Novotny, Eric J., ‘Transborder Data Flows: Bibliography‘, Stanford Journal of International Law, 16, 181-200, 1980.
• ‘Transborder data flow: Concerns in privacy protection and free flow of information – In Depth‘, Computerworld, 13 March 1980, 1980.
• Frosini, Vittorio, ‘La protezione della riservatezza nella società informatica‘, Rivista Internazionale Informatica e Diritto, fasc. 1, pp. 5-14, 1981.
• Australian Law Reform Commission, Privacy (Report no. 22), 3 vols. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1983.
• Privacy and 1984: Public opinions on privacy issues: Hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, first session, April 4, 1984.
• Frosini, Vittorio, ‘Le droit de l’informatique dans les années 80‘, Rivista Internazionale Informatica e Diritto, fasc. 2, pp. 63-72, 1984.
• Shattuck, John, ‘Computer Matching is a Serious Threat to Individual Rights’, Communications of the ACM, Volume 27, Number 6, 538-541, June 1984.
• Simitis, Spiros, ‘Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen Datenschutzrecht‘, Rivista Internazionale Informatica e Diritto, fasc. 3, pp. 97-116, 1984.
• Maisl, Herbert, ‘G. Page, Le droit d’accès et de contestation dans le traitement des données personnelles. Étude de base en droit privé suisse et américain‘, Revue internationale de droit comparé, Vol. 36 N°4, Octobre-décembre, pp. 892-893, 1984.
• Smith, Robert Ellis, Report on data protection and privacy in seven selected states by Robert Ellis Smith for the Office of Technology Assessment, 1985.
• Maisl, Herbert, ‘Université libre de Bruxelles, Informatique et droit en Europe‘, Revue internationale de droit comparé. Vol. 39 N°2, Avril-juin, pp. 520-522, 1987.

• Fauvet, Jacques ‘La protection des données personnelles‘, Revue internationale de droit comparé. Vol. 39 N°3, Juillet-septembre, pp. 551-556, 1987.
• Maisl, Herbert, ‘État de la législation française et tendances de la jurisprudence relatives à la protection des données personnelles‘, Revue internationale de droit comparé, Vol. 39 N°3, Juillet-septembre, pp. 559-580, 1987.
• Vitalis, André, Informatique, pouvoir et libertés (2e éd.), préf. de Jacques Ellul, Economica, 1988.
• Rigaux, François, La vie privée : Une liberté parmi les autres ?, Larcier, 1992.
• Castillo Jiménez, Cinta, Vittorio Frosini: aportación al estudio de las relaciones entre las nuevas tecnologías de la información y el derecho, Universidad de Sevilla, Departamento de Filosofía del Derecho, 1997.
• Van Hoecke, Mark dnd Jan Dhont, ‘Obstacles and Opportunities for the Harmonisation of Law in Europe: The case of Privacy‘, In Function and Future of European Law, edited by V. Heiskanen, 107–46. Helsinki: Forum Iuris, 1999.
• ‘The EU Data Protection Directive: Implications for the US privacy debate‘, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Enegergy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seven Congress, First Session, 8 March 2001.
• lshammar, Lars, ‘When computers became dangerous: The Swedish computer discourse of the 1960s‘, Human IT: Journal for Information Technology Studies as a Human Science, 9(1), 2007.
• Elgsaas K., Hegna H., ‘The Development of Computer Policies in Government, Political Parties, and Trade Unions in Norway 1961–1983′, in: Impagliazzo J., Järvi T., Paju P. (eds.) History of Nordic Computing 2. HiNC 2007. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009.
• Murillo de la Cueva, Pablo Lucas and José Luis Piñar Mañas, El derecho a laautodeterminación informativa, Fundación Coloquio Jurídico Europeo, 2009.
• Gassman, H. P., ‘30 Years After: The Impact of the OECD Privacy Guidelines‘, Joint Roundtable of the Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP), and its Working Party on Information Security and Privacy (WPISP), Paris, 10 March 2010.
• Koops, Bert-Jaap, ‘The Evolution of Privacy Law and Policy in the Netherlands’, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 165-179, 2011.
• Trumbull, J. Gunnar, ‘Between Global and Local: The Invention of Data Privacy in the United States and France‘, The Voice of the Citizen Consumer: A History of Market Research, Consumer Movements, and the Political Public Sphere, Oxford/Londres, Oxford University Press/German Historical Institute, pp. 199-224, 2011.
• ‘Berlin Group’, International Documents on Data Protection in Telecommunications and Media 1983 – 2013. 2013.
• Atten, Michel, et Liz Carey Libbrecht, ‘What Databases Do to Privacy: The Emergence of a Public Issue in 1960s America‘, Réseaux, vol. 178-179, no. 2-3, pp. 21-53, 2013.
• Cohen, Julie E, ‘What privacy is for‘, Harvard Law Review 126(7), pp. 1904-1933, 2013.
• Rodríguez Marcano, Eligio Rafael, El derecho a la autodeterminación informativa en Venezuela, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Facultad de Derecho, Departamento de Derecho Político, 2013.
• Hustinx, Peter, EU Data Protection Law: The Review of Directive 95/46/EC and the Proposed General Data Protection Regulation, 15 September 2014.
• Lundin, Per, ‘Computers and Welfare: The Swedish Debate on the Politics of Computerization in the 1970s and the 1980s‘, 4th History of Nordic Computing (HiNC4), August 2014.
• Brückweh, Kerstin, Menschen zählen: Wissensproduktion durch britische Volkszählungen und Umfragen vom 19. Jahrhundert bis ins digitale Zeitalter, German Historical Institute London, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2015.
• Halpérin, Jean-Louis, ‘Protection de la vie privée et privacy : deux traditions juridiques différentes?’, Les Nouveaux Cahiers du Conseil constitutionnel, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 59-68, 2015.
• Solove, Daniel J., ‘A brief history of information privacy law‘, Proskauer on privacy, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 215, 2016.
• Pohle, J., Datenschutz und Technikgestaltung, Diss. rer. nat. HU 2017.
• Stenberg, Sten-Åke, Born in 1953: The story about a post-war Swedish cohort, and a longitudinal research project, Stockholm University Press, 2018.
• Dittrich, Monika, ‘Eine Idee wird 50: Wie in Hessen der Datenschutz erfunden wurde‘, Deutschlandfunk, 7 October 2020.
• Rossi, Julien, Protection des données personnelles et droit à la vie privée ; enquête sur la notion controversée de ” donnée à carctère personnel “, 2020.
• Coghlan, Niall and Marc Steiert (eds.),The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: The travaux préparatoires and selected documents, European University Institute, 2020/2021.
• Bassett, Caroline, Anti-computing: Dissent and the machine, Manchester University Press, 2021.
• Gellman, Robert, ‘Fair Information Practices: A Basic History – Version 2.21′, SSRN, 3 September 2021.

Additional online resources:

• Archive on European Integration (AEI) documents on privacy and data protection.
• The Robert Ellis Smith Collection, 1938-2014 at University of Massachusetts Amhert. About European data protection developments, see notably: No. 8, June 1975; No. 9, July 1975; Vol. III, No. 1, November 1976; Vol. III, No. 6, April 1977 (filed under 1976); Vol. III, No. 7, May 1977; Vol. III, No. 11, September 1977.
• Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL), University of Cambridge:
  • Resources on European Data Protection – National Laws.
  • Resources on Pan-European Data Protection and e-Privacy.
• The personal website of Michael Kirby offers access to numerous of his interesting speeches, such as ‘Law reform, privacy and public administration’ (1976), ‘Privacy and the Law’ (1976), ‘Computers and Law Reform‘ (1976), ‘Databases and Privacy, or How to Stop Talking and Do Something‘ (1977), or ‘Computers – What on Earth Are We Doing, Privacy Protection – National and International‘ (1978).
• ULD Interviews zur Geschichte und Programmatik des Datenschutzes in Deutschland.
• Jon Bing – A tribute website.
• EUDataP – link collection at De Lege Lata – about the data protection reform and the GDPR.

Additional reading suggestions:

• Newspapers and media items.
• Historical documents regarding data protection and European Union institutions.
• Articles not in open access.
• Books.

Work in progress.