This is a very concise account of the trajectory of the global development of data privacy laws over their first 50 years, and the impasse they have reached by 2026 in their conflict with the global practices of surveillance capitalism. Every paragraph of this article deserves a whole article of explanation – except for the fact that much of it is by now ­commonly accepted.

Data privacy laws: Data privacy laws are laws which attempt to systematically regulate the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information (information capable of identifying a natural person). It has been little more than half a century since the first such law in Hesse, Germany (1970).