On a day of December 1995, Swiss author Daniel de Roulet received by mail
a 7.3 pounds parcel. Inside were files sent by the Helvetian police department. Files
documenting his life, week after week: an archive of what he had said, of the places
he had been to, of the people he had met for 17 years, between 1964 and 1981. The
Secret Files Scandal in Switzerland broke out 1989, when it was revealed that the
Bundespolizei (now Swiss Federal Police), charged with domestic intelligence, was
secretly and illegally keeping more than 900,000 files in secret archives. Under their
surveillance were Swiss citizens and foreigners, among which unionists, left-wing
activists, ecologists and intellectuals. After the existence of the archives was
disclosed, 300,000 people requested to see their files. The documents were first
blacked out, in order to redact sensible data, such as police informers’ names.