The focus of this report is to explain the requirements & imposes of Data Protection Act 1998. The 1998 act affects to all people who uses information or data about other individuals & Business. The DPA 1998 covers from the initial collection of data through its final deletion or destruction. The main term used in the IT industry is Data Processing which is extremely wide and it can be either usage of data, alteration of data, retrieval, data transmission or destruction of data.
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The Data Protection Act 1998 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament  which came into force early in 1999 and replaced the Data Protection Act 1984. The Act defines law on the processing data of living people. It is one of the main laws of legislation that governs the protection of personal data. Under this act, those who manage or use personal information have to follow rules or principles that are defined in the DPA. It also provides rights to individuals over their personal information. Some of the individual rights under DPA include access, compensation and the prevention of processing.
The basic principle of DPA is protecting privacy and a way in which each individual can control information about them. Also it defines a way in which organisations should carry their marketing strategy, through any communication media. Most of the act does not apply to domestic use, for example keeping personal address book. Well, if anyone holds personal data for other purpose he should follow this Act. The DPA also ensures that the data controller or the computer bureau will be liable for processing operation against the DPA Principles.
The Data Protection Act 1984 was introduced in UK legislation to provide special protection to individuals. The Act was adopted by the European Parliament after a lengthy discussion sessions. They adopted a proposal for a directive on the processing of personal data and on the transfer of such data. Certain protections where given in scenario where the personal information relating to them was handled, such as large business organisations and in emerging information technology. Data given from one party to another party may only be used for the specific purpose it was disclosed for. The data should be only kept for a limited period of time and must not be disclosed to other party without the authorisation of data owner. The term ‘Processing’ and ‘Personal data’ had a great impact in transformation during the DPA 1984. The ‘Personal data’ covers both the data in electronic and manual form. And the term ‘Processing’ became wide in such a way that nothing could be carried out in relation to personal data under this definition.
The Data Protection Registrar was the regulatory authority who oversees the implementation and functionality of the act. Later it was followed up by the Data Protection Act 1998, which is an implementation of European Union Directive 95/46/EC. In DPA 1998 it renamed the Data Protection Registrar to Data Protection Commissioner. The functionality of Data Protection Commissioner is to ensure the compliance by publics by taking the necessity steps. The current Information Commissioner is Richard Thomas, he has the authority to inform parliament directly. The other function of commissioner is to provide guidance, promote good practice which falls under the Act. It also provides helpline services by phone or written request. The commissioner also acts like a legal adviser to the data controller’s and has developed & issued many documents for the data controller for implementing and interpretation of their duties.
Some of the documents include:
- Code of Practice for CCTV users;
- Code of Practice on Employment Practices, which include codes on Recruitment and Selection; Records Management; Monitoring at Work and Medical Information about the employees.
- Code of Practice on Telecommunications Directory Information and Fair Processing.
The Principles of DPA 1998
The DPA 1998 contains eight 