Man's capacity to gather, order and disseminate information has grown tremendously in the past decades. As this capacity has grown, man has become increasingly aware of the potential dangers to individual liberty posed by possible abuse of this capacity. Not until record-keeping and information dissemination systems acquired a capacity for destroying or severly limiting individual privacy did man come to a full appreciation of his interest in protecing his personal privacy. Despite this developing appreciation, efforts to provide legal weapons for use in defense of personal privacy have not kept pace with technological innovations which continue to make invasion of that privacy ever easier.

The revolution in the use of automated data processing equipment - particularly the electronic computer - has given government and private industry the capacity to compile detailed data on individuals in almost all areas of personal activity (education, employment, credit, taxation, health, government licensing and benefits, law enforcement, and so on). Fears have been expressed as to the possibly chilling effect the existence of such collections of automated personal data systems can have upon a free society such as ours.

Such concerns, and others, caused the General Assembly in 1974 to adopt a resolution directing the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council to study this matter of computer privacy and security and report its recommendations for legislation.