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The Purpose Of Data Protection Act

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The purpose of the data protection act is to control how the information is handled and to give legal rights to people that have information stored about them. This is done in more than one country, like other European union countries have passed these similar laws.
Data protection act is important because businesses, organization's and the government use the computers to keep their customers, clients and staff information in the database; these information are like the names, addresses, contact information, employment history, medical conditions, convictions and credit history. Databases are very easily accessed. It is also easier to cross reference information that are stored in the database than if the records were paper-based, the computers …show more content…

The data protection act 1998 covers the data that is stored on a computer or on a organized filing system about living people. It works by, setting rules for people to follow and having an information commissioner to apply the rules. This does not stop companies storing information but it makes them follow the rule.. The rules are;
The information commissioner is the person who has the power to apply the act.
A data controller is a person/company that collects and keeps the data.
A data subject is someone that stores the data outside of the area, this can be in a surgery in where the y store the customers names addresses and phone numbers.
The people that need to store information need to register with the information commissioner. The data controllers need to see what information would be stored and it should be recorder in the register. Every register contains the following;
The data controllers name and address. A description of what information would be stored.
What are they going to do with the information.
The data controller decision whether to pass the information to other …show more content…

the information stored should be safe and secure and this includes keeping the information backed up and away so there is no unauthorized access, it is wrong to leave personal data open and unattended so it is viewed by everyone.
8. the data cannot be transferred outside the area unless the country has the same data protection law and this has lead many countries to pass similar law to allow computer data centers in their area.
The rights of data subjects, the people that have their data stored are called data subjects ad the data protection act sets rights for people who have data kept about them and these rights are; A right of subject access, this means that the data subject has the right to be supplied by the data controller with the personal data they have on their database and the data controller can charge around £10 pounds. A right of correction, this is when the data subject can force the data controller to correct mistakes in the data that they have about them. A right to prevent distress, this means that the data subject can stop using information that can cause them to be distressed. A right to prevent direct marketing, the data subject can stop their data being used to sell them

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