Unit 3 ICT and SocietyHow does legislation affect our use of ICT
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The Data Protection Act was introduced in 1998. This act covers how information about people is used. It was brought into force to protect information personal data e.g. names and addresses or credit card numbers and expiry dates, so that organisations couldn't just pass on your personal information to anyone. Organisations which might hold information about people include banks, schools, employers, police and credit card companies; using databases to store the information. So it affects nearly everyone as most people nowadays have a bank account. The Data Protection Act contains eight principles, which are Personal data:
shall be processed fairly and lawfully
shall be processed for limited purposes
must be adequate, relevant and not excessive
must be accurate
must not be kept longer than needed
shall beprocessed in accordance with the data subject's rights
must be secure
shall not be transferred to other countries without permission
So basically, if a company has details on you, they can't really do much with it without facing a heavy fine.
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 was brought into force to cope with the problems of hackers and viruses. It prevents illegal access to files (also called hacking), which is when someone goes into files that they aren't allowed to look at...