Building on Simitis's work, Berkeley's Paul M. Schwartz warned in 1989 that computerization would transform the delicate balance of rights and obligations upon which privacy law depends: “Today the enormous amounts of personal data available in computers threaten the individual in a way that renders obsolete much of the previous legal protection.” Most important, Schwartz foresaw that the scale of the still-emerging crisis would impose risks that exceed the scope of privacy law: “The danger that the computer poses is to human autonomy. The more that is known about a person, the easier it is to control him. Insuring the liberty that nourishes democracy requires a structuring of societal use of information and even permitting some concealment of information."

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 599