So if you don't remember it ever happening, what did the laws curb again? I'm talking about the effectiveness of adding laws... going from 0 to 0 demonstrates n

So if you don't remember it ever happening, what did the laws curb again? I'm talking about the effectiveness of adding laws... going from 0 to 0 demonstrates no effectiveness much less the effectiveness required to overcome the societal cost of compliance. The laws might have curbed what would have happened if they didn't exist - and did end up happening in places without it, like the US. Remember that the Data Protection Directive is from 1995, before companies were so connected and exposed, so a lack of such breaches before it passed is not very indicative of its lack of effectiveness. But a comparison with other countries might be. embedded big business cultural differences Maybe, but law shapes culture too, so that's hard to separate. As an European myself, I'm kind of skeptical that our business people would intrinsically care much more about data protection when their money is on the line.