At the end of the 1960s, in view of the emergence of electronic data processing, the focus of state attention was primarily on rationalisation and efficiency enhancement interests. Automatic data processing was perceived as an opportunity to counter the phenomena of excessive demands that accompanied the increase in services provided by the state. The legal regulation of data processing was seen as a hindrance. Only gradually did legislators identify the protection of privacy or personality as a requirement for the design or use of data processing techniques, activities and procedures. [according Laura Schulte, Vom quantitativen zum qualitativen Datenschutz, S. 261 f.]

The fact that there are also economic and bureaucratic interests in data processing is - as far as can be seen - not explicitly recognised anywhere in the GDPR.