The data protection act, also sometimes referred to as the DPA, was enacted in the United Kingdom in 1998 by an act of Parliament. Here is a brief summary of the data protection act of 1998 summary. The data protection act provides all the legal basis in the United Kingdom on what kind of organizations can collect information and how they can go about identifying a living person.

How Does The Data Protection Act Affect Me?
The data protection act affects each person in the United Kingdom in a profound manner. First, the data protection act provides most of the legal basis for how an individual's privacy is protected. The data protection act of 1998 affects the way that information is collected about a living person. So how does the data protection act affect you? The data protection act is an all-encompassing principle that regulates how data is collected. It says that companies and organizations can only use the information that they collect about you for a specific purpose, for which that specific information was collected in the first place.

An Easy Guide To The Data Protection Act – Summary
In general, the UK Parliament enacted the data protection act of 1998 in an effort to protect an individual's privacy. The data protection act puts forth the notion that information collected about a person on behalf of an organization may only be collected for a specific purpose. Furthermore, the information that is collected on behalf of these organizations can only be kept by that organization for a limited amount of time. Another important facet of the data protection act is that the personal data can only be kept for a limited amount of time that is specified early on, and the data collected cannot be shared with any third parties. The data collected can only be shared with other parties if the individual has given their written consent.

Data Protection Act And Organizations
What kind of parties may be interested in collecting data that is protected by the data protection act? Schools are one legitimate example of an organization that may be interested in collecting information about the individual if there is a legitimate reason for doing so. A large independent government organization and authority called the Office of the Information Commissioner oversee the data protection act. Every organization that stores personal data must be registered with this particular office.