Data Protection Act

admin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 07:45:38 +0000

Regardless of whom you are, where you live or what you do, somebody will have some kind of information on you, gathered over the years and processed into their personal records. While that seems like a big breach of personal security, the act is completely legal if the information is gathered and processed legally. That really just does not seem fair for you in any way, but the fact is, it does not matter as long as the information was obtained legally. The government, schools and so on, are big contenders when it comes to obtaining and storing data legally for different legal purposes.

However, back in 1984, a British act of parliament known as DPA or Data Protection Act came into existence. This act was implemented for the sanctity of residents living in the United Kingdom; what this act did was help keep any personal information held on any United Kingdom resident or business protected and private by creating a legal foundation for the act to stand on. This act did not prevent the actual gathering and storing of personal data on individuals, but it did require the data to be obtained legally and kept only for a certain length of time. The data that has been gathered could not be shared between two different parties without first obtaining legal consent from the data owner. The data owner is the individual in which the data has been gathered on.

Later on in 1987, the Access to Personal Files Act was also created and pertained to exactly what its name suggested; how to access personal files. The Access to Personal Files Act of 1987 and the Data Protection Act of 1984 were all updated by a new Data Protection Act erected in 1998. The purpose of every one of these acts was to create principles or rights for any United Kingdom resident who is having his or her data stored. Individuals can request that their data not be used with the sole intentions of direct marketing, they can request to see any information being held on them by filling out a request and paying a small fee, if any incorrect information if found by the individual then he or she can request that it be changed to its correct form, and individuals may also request that the data not be used in any ways that he or she finds may bring danger or harm to them in any way.

These acts are just about the only pieces of legislation that governs the privacy of information being held on any United Kingdom resident. These acts help give rights to any individual who is having information stored on him or her, it also lays out guidelines about how the data is obtained and shared, and basically just makes sure that the data is not wrongfully used.

Finance site’s have to adhere to the data protection act in order to treat people’s information safely. To read more about the data protection act and it’s role in finance, try financenews.co.uk or http://www.reuters.com/