The 1998 Data Protection Act was passed by Parliament to control the way information is handled and to give legal rights to people who have information stored about them.
Other European Union countries have passed similar laws as often information is held in more than one country.
The Data Protection Act is a law designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in a paper filing system. During the second half of the 20th century, organisations, businesses and the government started to use computers to store information about their customers, clients and staff. So things such as names, addresses, contact information, employment history, medical conditions, convictions and credit history.
If a member of staff takes some information or doesn't keep it confidential without the right consent then the company or the persons details who have bin exploited can sue the company and press charges on the exploiter so the person in charge of the company must ensure that no personal data is passed around.
One of the ways consent can be confirmed to transfer information is for instance when a phone company hands a debt over to a debt reinforcement firm for recovery.
One of the ways consent can be confirmed to transfer information is for instance when a phone company hands a debt over to a debt reinforcement firm for recovery.
The person in charge of enforcing these rules is called the Information Commissioner. The person in charge of the data is called the Data Controller and the person who has their data stored somewhere is called the Data Subject.
As a simple example, if you found out the NHS passed your medical history to another business without your consent, would you be happy?
Any company that wishes to store personal information within its business must first apply to with the Information Commissioner. Data Controllers must declare that the information is stored and what it is stored for to the Data Subjects before anything is stored. This is recorded in the register. Some of the entrys in the register could include names and addresses, discription of what it is being stored for and what they are going to use the information for.
The Computer Misuse Act (1990)
This was passed by Parliament and made three new offences:
1. Accessing computer material without permission, eg looking at someone else's files.
2. Accessing computer material without permission with intent to commit further criminal offences, eg hacking into the bank's computer and wanting to increase the amount in your account.
3. Altering computer data without permission, eg writing a virus to destroy someone else's data, or actually changing the money in an account.
The Computer Misuse Act is the law put in place to prevent people using computers in the wrong way or for the use of bad things such as applying viruses and hacking. It has affected IT on a mass scale now compared to 20 years ago where viruses were on a minimal scale. An example of where it has helped is the closing of child-abusive chat rooms. Chat rooms had paedophiles in which asked personal information before meeting them. So The Computer Misuse Act enforces the protection of young ones on the internet. Another example of computer misuse is email spam. Email spam is emails that haven't been sent by someone you don't know or from a source that isn't trusted, trying to get your credentials from you.
The Computer Misuse Act is a big law containing sub laws. Some of the sub laws are The Data Protection Act and Copyright Law.
Copyright law
The prevention of software piracy:
When you buy software, copyright law forbids you from:
- giving a copy to a friend
- making a copy and then selling it
- using the software on a network (unless the licence allows it)
- renting the software without the permission of the copyright holder
The law that governs copyright in the UK is called the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is the law set in place to defend any of the above. It has the effect on IT by a much more reliable sales figure. This is because instead of people copying or using a friends copy of a game, they will have to buy it themselves hence increasing sales for the game company.
The CDPA protects artistic works, sound recordings and films with the duration of being able to copy one set to 70 years after the above was released.
So in simpler terms, if I created an edited picture for my website, I can copyright it within the law so no one else but me can use it and if they do, they can be sued or even be sentenced to time in prison.
The CDPA protects artistic works, sound recordings and films with the duration of being able to copy one set to 70 years after the above was released.
So in simpler terms, if I created an edited picture for my website, I can copyright it within the law so no one else but me can use it and if they do, they can be sued or even be sentenced to time in prison.
good blog and helped me to know something about IT
ReplyDelete