5.3 Legislation relating to the use of ICT for storage, manipulation and access of information

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Data Protection Act
   1. The eight principles of good practice
   2. The six conditions for fair data processing
   3. Sensitive data
   4. Rights under the Act
   5. Criminal offences created by the Act
   6. Unsolicited electronic communications
   7. The role of the Information Commissioner's Office
   8. Other Useful DPA websites
3. Copyright legislation
4. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Rights under the Act

There are seven rights under the Data Protection Act.

1. The right to subject access: This allows people to find out what information is held about them on computer and within some manual records.

2. The right to prevent processing: Anyone can ask a data controller not to process information relating to him or her that causes substantial unwarranted damage or distress to them or anyone else.

3. The right to prevent processing for direct marketing: Anyone can ask a data controller not to process information relating to him or her for direct marketing purposes.

4. Rights in relation to automated decision-taking: Individuals have a right to object to decisions made only by automatic means e.g. there is no human involvement.

5. The right to compensation: An individual can claim compensation from a data controller for damage and distress caused by any breach of the act. Compensation for distress alone can only be claimed in limited circumstances.

6. The right to rectification, blocking, erasure and destruction: Individuals can apply to the court to order a data controller to rectify, block or destroy personal details if they are inaccurate or contain expressions of opinion based on inaccurate information.

7. The right to ask the Commissioner to assess whether the Act has been contravened: If someone believes their personal information has not been processed in accordance with the DPA, they can ask the Commissioner to make an assessment. If the Act is found to have been breached and the matter cannot be settled informally, then an enforcement notice may be served on the data controller in question.

Let's have a look at Criminal offences created by the Act ...