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)

Criminal offences created by the Act

A number of criminal offences are created by the Act and include:

Notification offences: This is where processing is being undertaken by a data controller who has not notified the Commissioner either of the processing being undertaken or of any changes that have been made to that processing.

Procuring and selling offences: It is an offence to knowingly or recklessly obtain, disclose or procure the disclosure of personal information without the consent of the data controller. There are some exceptions to this - for example, where such obtaining or disclosure was necessary for crime prevention/detection. If a person has obtained personal information illegally it is an offence to offer or to sell personal information.

Let's look now at Unsolicited electronic communications ...