Data Protection Act 1998

Submitted By wowowhahayes1
Words: 998
Pages: 4

Data protection act 1998
This law is there so people cannot upload data about other people if they don’t want their data to be shown on the internet, paperwork or any other sort a system where you can store things on. Moreover this law covers all personal data such as: address, email, address, telephone number etc.
This law covers: if someone collects information about you for a particular reason, they cannot then use it for another reason for example someone collects your bank details so they can put money in your bank account, they cannot then use them bank details to take some money out.
You can’t take someone’s details down then give it to another business without their permission (even if it can be for a good thing) for example a corner shop takes your details down and they get you a good job in a big company like Tesco they cannot do that without your permission.
The data you have about someone/something must be up to date and if you’re only supposed to have it for a certain amount of time then discard of it promptly when you’re not meant to have it anymore.
Also you’re not meant to send data of someone/something to places outside the European Union.
If a business has wrong information about you then you have the right to tell them to update it so it is right.
This law occurred because on various websites/ businesses they were keeping information on customers and clients in databases and because more than one person/ business could go on the databases; data could have got changed and it would have been confusing or it could have gone in the wrong hands so this law had to be created
People may not like this because businesses like a hospital for example may need the person’s details to do things which could potentially help them and the patient don’t want to give details then they could die from something which could have been prevented
Computer misuse act 1990
This law was originally made to stop the right of hackers hacking other people’s computers. There are 3 parts to this law: you cannot access a computer without the owner’s permission, you cannot access a computer without permission wanting to change, delete or copy files to yourself and you cannot copy, delete or change files without the owner’s permission.
There is only one thing about this law; it’s that it is hard to prosecute anyone who could have possibly broken this law because it’s hard to prove if someone has or not.
This law was created because people would gain control of another person’s computer/laptop by saying it is their own but then hacking it or carrying out malicious activities on it to gain personal information or passwords; so it had to be created.
Others may not like this because owners of the computers/laptops could lie and say they were hacked by a certain person or a certain person gained access to their computer and could get fake evidence for it and get that certain person jailed for something they didn’t do.
Copyright, designs and patents act 1988
This law is there so people cannot copy other people’s information, business name etc. to make money off it for example you cannot use the name Microsoft and in some way try and make money off it. When you patent something like a business name; it is like you have an automatic right for that business name and no-one can else can use that name in the future and try to make money off it.
This law was created around the time photocopiers were invented because people were photocopying other peoples work and saying it was their own and also people were using people logo’s to get ahead of others in things so the law had to be created.