That is a somewhat valid concern, but here in Denmark (EU) GDPR har actually been helpful to highlight some of the data collection by the state, and some of it, has been set on standby or at least been postponed because of concerns (student mental health/well beeing, was so to be registered, and stored on a SSN level “for research”)
In Sweden (before GDPR) some inofficial list of "known elements of problems" or somesuch was kept by some police officers. This was already illegal before GDPR and lead to a lot of problems and news.
Heh, several EU countries already have FOI laws in place. Together with the GDPR regulation one has a handy and effective combination of tools to reign in governmental abuse. Oh, I’d never imagine I would ever use the word “synergy”! :D
