False or misleading information can also be harmful, if widely disseminated.

Birth certificates. Creditworthiness.

At the age of 54, Sigmund Arywitz was a healthy American success story. He was making $30,000 a year as executive secretary and treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, his family was sound, his reputation high on all counts, and he had just finished eight prestigious years in Sacramento as state labor commissioner under Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown. But something was awry. In the space of one year, five Los Angeles department stores refused Sig Arywitz charge accounts, and a major car-leasing company turned him down for credit -- even though he had a walletful of oil-company and other credit cards and had always paid his bills on time....

1970

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/11/is-privacy-...

See also: Cardinal Richelieu.