The Data Protection Act Of The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland

Data Protection Act 1998 – gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them, and those that processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which makes sure that personal information is fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; accurate and up to date; not kept for longer than is necessary; processed in line with your rights; secure; not transferred to other countries without adequate protection;

Any individual has the right to obtain information stored about them at any given time.

given extra safeguards for sensitive information – e.g. ethnicity, political views, religion, health or criminal records

This check was put in place to safeguard people who are vulnerable such as children and persons with a disability.

The Data Protection Act 1998 is a piece of legislation which defines the law on processing data of people living within the United Kingdom.

Data protection is a very important piece of legislation that was brought into power in 1998, because it has been designed to prevent confidential and personal information being passed on to other people and any relevant companies without a person’s consent. This also means that any information that is stored of children should be kept in either a password protected or lockable location.

covers correct storage and sharing of both manual and electronic information. There are eight principles put in place by the Data Protection Act 1998 to make sure that information is handled properly:

The Data Protection Act states that you must only collect information that you need for a specific purpose and keep it secure, ensure that it is relevant and up to date to guarantee that no changes in medication or health status goes unnoticed or unaccounted

Information Commissioner’s Office (2012) Introduction to The Data Protection Act 1998. [Online] Available from: http://www.ico.org.uk/~/media/documents/library/Corporate/Research_and_reports/ico_presentation_EVOC_20120528.ashx [Accessed: 11th October 2013]

This act was introduced to prevent users hacking. This also stops them entering a computer, programs or files without authorisation, this act is in place to prevent users to use the internet without permission to cause an act of crime and also prevents unauthorised modifications to a computer. This act does not allow any attacks on a server as this is illegal.

Organisations are required to keep data to meet legislative and regulatory law, such as pay records to supply to HMRC for tax and NI contributions and records of training given to staff to confirm with Health and Safety Act and Fire regulations.

The Data Protection Act 1998 is a piece of legislation that controls how an individual’s personal information is used by organisations, businesses and the government. This Act ensures that HR departments only collect data from individuals is covered by what we are allowed to collect under the Act, relevant and not excessive, we must also be sure that data is not stored for longer than necessary. We must ensure that data is stored securely and confidentially; and that we are open about the reasons why we are collecting and storing the data.

b) Freedom of Information Act (2000) – FOI ‘provides public access to information held by public authorities. It does this in two ways: public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities; and members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities.’ (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-freedom-of-information/what-is-the-foi-act/)

The main principle behind freedom of information legislation is that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities.

Person who break into someone else’s computer system will have a maximum of £2000 fine and a six months prison.