1. DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

2. DATA PROTECTION ACT  Gives rights to data subjects (i.e. people who have data stored about them on a computer)  Information is collected about people for a large number of things.  It is important that information is kept private and is only used for its intended purposes.  Organisations must register with the Data Protection Commissioner if they want to store information about people. They must explain the following:  Who they are  What data they want to collect  What they will do with the data  Say who will have access to the data

3. DATA PROTECTION ACT  The act was updated in 1998 to bring it up to data with European legislation and to include other security measures e.g. sending information over the internet.  It also follows 8 principles.  These can be found in room 9 on the display wall.

4. 8 DPA PRINCIPLES 1. Personal Data must be processed fairly and lawfully. 2. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes. 3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive. 4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up-to-date. 5. Personal data shall not be kept for longer than is necessary. 6. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects. 7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental lost. 8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area, unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection.

5. DISADVANTAGES OF THE DPA  It is argued that it is difficult to enforce.  How do we know if a company is registered to the Data Protection Commission? There are so many shops that could store information about us its hard to keep track of them all.  It is an extra expense for an organisation – someone has to be employed to make sure that the organisation isn’t breaking any laws.  The last principle is hard to enforce because its difficult to track if someone has accessed a web database from another country.  As a result conviction rates are low.  Either means companies are well behaved or…  They are breaking the law but we haven’t been able to prove it yet.

6. SPAM  From August 2003 it became illegal to send unsolicited emails to people.  I.e. SPAM  People should only receive emails IF they accept to do so.  But how many people are paying attention to these laws…think about how many SPAM messages you get every day.  SPAM contributes the large proportion of internet traffic on the web…there is THAT much of it.

7. COOKIES  Cookies are used to keep track of activities on a webpage  E.g. will keep a track of what is in your shopping basket.  Some cookies have been designed to keep a track of your online activities.  These cookies then send information to marketing companies who sell the information to organisations.  Websites that use cookies should clearly notify that they are doing so.