The German Federal Data Protection Act (the ’Act’) dates back to its first enactment in February 1977. Prior to this, the German state Hesse had implemented the worldwide first data protection legislation in 1970.
Calls for amendments to the Act rose almost immediately after its implementation but did not gain foothold
until the mid 1980s when draft bills for amendment were introduced. These draft bills failed to come
through due to termination of the legislative period at the end of 1986. In 1990, the Act was finally amended considerably and reflected the first experiences with statutory data protection.

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