Data Protection Act
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The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a set of rules written by the British government for people who use data about living people on computers or any sort of storage system, even paper records. Data means information like address, telephone number and e-mail address, as well as more personal information like job history and records of what someone did. The newest version of the DPA was released in 1998.
People who use the information are called data users. People who the data is about are called data subjects.
[change] The rules
The DPA says that if you have data on your computer about someone, you must follow these rules:
- Data must be used fairly and lawfully
- Data must be kept up-to-date and accurate
- Only data which is needed for the job should be collected and used.
- Data must be kept secure
- Data must not be kept for longer than it is needed
- Data must be used within the person's rights (see below).
- Data must not be moved to another country outside the "European Economic Area" where the data protection is bad
- The data must be used only for the reason it was collected
- The data subject must be asked before giving the data about them to other data users (third parties).
[change] Rights
A data subject has these rights:
- If data held is wrong and it is not corrected, then a court can order the data to be corrected or destroyed, and the data subject can get compensation.
- A person can ask a company to see what data is being held about him/her, normally for a small payment.
- Their data cannot be used in a way that will cause damage or distress.
