Data Protection Act

The data protection act was set up in 1984(updated in 1998) to register the individuals or organizations who have your personal details. This is to try and prevent them from using any of your personal details illegally or sending them to someone else.

The eight principles that have to be adhered by the people processing your personal details are:

·         The personal data of everyone must be secure and processed under the law of the data protection act.

·         Personal data must be only used by the data user for what he has asked for. For example there would be no need for the data user to ask for there bank details if he only needed there house address.

·         Personal data should not be held for anything else other than what the person has asked.

·         Personal data kept by the data user has to be relevant  and not excessive in relation to what they need.

·         Personal data should always be accurate. The data user will need to make sure the personal details will be correct and updated if they need to be updated.

·         When ever the data user is finished with someone’s personal data for the reason it had to be used then it should not be held any longer after that.

·         Any person’s data that is being held is aloud to know whether or what data is being held about them. They are also aloud to have data corrected or data deleted about them.

·         There should never be anyone else except the data user allowed to access the personal details of anyone unless permission is given by the person who’s details