E-Commerce Laws and Legislation - The Data Protection Act
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Introduction
Nick Strife Data Protection Act The Data Protection Act was implemented to protect the privacy of living individuals who could be identified from the data, or from a combination of data held by the data controller. This also includes any opinions expressed about the individual. When Collecting data, the data controller must ensure they tell the individual who they are, what the information is going to be used for and ensure that they do not collect more information than is necessary. The data must be kept securely and not kept for longer than it?s needed. It must also be kept up to date and accurate. Individuals have the right to access their data at any time. Companies may charge a fee for this but they must respond within a set timeframe set out by their particular contract. The act contains eight ?Data Protection Principles?. These specify that personal data must be: 1. Processed fairly and lawfully. 2. Obtained for specified and lawful purposes. 3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive. 4. Accurate and up to date. 5. Not kept any longer than necessary. 6. Processed in accordance with the ?data subject?s? (the individual?s) rights. 7. Securely kept. 8. ...read more.
Middle
The idea must also be useful in some way. Drafting a patent application can be a very complicated process and the laws vary from country to country. Piracy is illegally copying, distributing or using programs, movies, music, etc you have not paid for. Piracy has a huge impact on businesses, if potential customers choose to illegally obtain their product rather than purchase it the business is losing money. Piracy has become a huge issue since the internet became available to the public; even more so since broadband became widespread. Businesses ? especially ones involved in a creative industry ? must be vigilant about their copyrighted work. Taking individuals or other companies to court over copyright disputes can be a long and costly process. Bigger companies may choose to hire their own legal team but smaller companies can?t always afford to do this ? which means if something does get stolen they will have to pay to outsource a lawyer. The impact piracy has had on society is that it?s become so widespread a lot of people think it is acceptable to copy or download programs, movies, music etc. illegally. ISP?s and law enforcement are cracking down on this behaviour and individuals are being hit with huge fines or having their internet connection limited or even cut off completely if they are repeat offenders. ...read more.
Conclusion
Whether this be medical records or a credit history consumers have the right to request any information about themselves from any public entity. Companies are obligated to provide this information on request within a reasonable time frame and are permitted to charge a fee to do this. The fees vary between different companies. The only time information may not be released is when the details held can be used to identify a different person to the one making the request because this would be in breach of the data protection act. Businesses and government entities must ensure they have appropriate policies in place to deal with requests from the public regarding release of their information. This needs to include how the customer would make such a request - either through the post or via email - technically requests can be made verbally but it is preferable to make the requests in a tangible form should any disputes arise. They also need to make sure their fee's for providing the information are made clear, as well as give a time frame. This affects business because providing data on request can take up valuable time and resources. If the customer is not happy with the data the company holds on them it can also lead to legal battles and expenditure to hire lawyers. ...read more.
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Here's what a teacher thought of this essay
4 star(s)
A very well written piece of work. The writer has clearly done some research and consolidated their findings into succinct sections. There is a lot of information in here that the student can use to revise from and prepare for an exam. the quality of written communication is good, there are a few minor errors.
It is a strong four stars. To push it to five stars the writer needs to include the scope of the acts geographically, refer to the dates that they came into being (as they have for the final one) and give some facts and figures to improve the level of detail with some examples.
Marked by teacher Ad Son 03/01/2013
