Data+Protection+Act

The Data Protection Act is a piece of legislation that was put forward to stop the misuse of personal data.

It was put in place as in the second half of the 20th century more and more businesses and governments stored personal data on computers. As a lot of data was being put on to computers there was concern that the data could be easily found and fall in to the wrong hands and be subsequently misused.

So then in 1988 the Data Protection Act was inrtroduced and then updated in 1998.

The Data Protection act protects empoyees and customers from having their information given away or sold. If a company sells or gives away someones personal information then they could be subject to fraud and/or identity theft.

** Data Protection Principles **

 * 1) Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless:
 * At least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and
 * in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.
 * 1) Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.
 * 2) Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.
 * 3) Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
 * 4) Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
 * 5) Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act.
 * 6) Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
 * 7) Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Areaunless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.