These principals aim to enshrine worthy measures about the protection of the individual, however, there are aspects within the legal side of the law in which personal and confidential information can be breached. An example of this is yellow pages and the website 192.com where personal details can be viewed and misused. Furthermore, contradicts freedom of information acts 2000. I will now look at how this act affects our society.
HOW THE DATA PROTECTION ACT THIS AFFECTS MR. IRWIN AS A TEACHER:
- He can’t show information about someone to someone else/ he must not give out people’s personal information.
- Must not sell students name or address.
- He needs to keep information safe.
HOW THE DATA PROTECTION ACT AFFECT MR PATEL:
- This law gives Mr Patel the right to challenge or have access to any information held about him on the computer or filing cabinet
- Persona, private and confidential information about him will be safe
- It generally helps him to be careful with information that is sensitive in nature
HOW THE DATA PROTECTION ACT AFFECTS ME AS A STUDENT:
- There is a chance that my personal information could be copied therefore, I must be careful how I keep them
- It stops me from losing or abusing other student’s information.
- It helps to keep confidential information about me safe.
HOW THE DATA PROTECTION ACT AFFECTS THE COMMUNITY:
- Prevents the police from copying personal information of other people for sale for their own benefits
- It helps keep personal information about people in the community safe
- It does not allow the hospital to disclose patient information to a 3rd party without the patients consent.
- It makes it illegal for member organisation to give out my personal detail to any other person
Computer misuse act 1990: This act was introduced to regulate . This helps to provide protection against the abuse of personal information. Another method of protecting personal data is using encryption to prevent it being read by unauthorised people.
This was passed by Parliament and made three new offences:
- Accessing computer material without permission e.g. looking at someone else's files.
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Accessing computer material without permission with intent to commit further criminal offences e.g. into the bank's computer and wanting to increase the amount in your account.
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Altering computer without permission e.g. writing a to destroy someone else's data, or actually changing the money in an account.
This law was passed with a good purpose but is vague in affectivity. Just making something illegal or setting up regulations does not stop it happening, so responsible computer users need to take reasonable steps to keep their data safe. This includes regular backup and sufficient security with passwords. I will now look at how this act affects our society:
HOW COMPUTER MISUSE ACT 1990 AFFECTS MR. IRWIN:
- Trying to gain access into another teacher’s files by guessing the teacher’s passwords.
- Hacking into other computers, whether it belongs to the school where he works or not.
- Altering computer data without permission for example sending or distributing viruses electronically to damage someone else’s data/information
HOW COMPUTER MISUSE ACT 1990 AFFECTS MR PATEL:
- He cannot use the internet to access or distribute any indecent material otherwise he could be in trouble with the police and may be sacked or convicted if found guilty
- He cannot hack into a computer
- cannot send out viruses to other computers because if found out he could face prosecution
HOW COMPUTER MISUSE ACT AFFECTS ME AS A STUDENT:
- Prevents chat room abuse- stops me from advertising illegal things on the internet through email
- It stops me from accessing other peoples files
- Stops me from sending off viruses to damage other peoples computers
HOW COMPUTER MISUSE ACT AFFECT THE COMMUNITY:
- Stops the community such as the police, DLR, idea Store from accessing or storing pornographic material
- It stops internet café (idea Store) from allowing people to download illegal music from their store
- It stops staff from stealing identity from another person for misusing the internet chat rooms and using their identity for financial frauds
- Contradicts freedom of information act 2000
Copy Right Law: The copyright act was introduced in 1989 and now makes it illegal to copy a file without permission from the owner or the copyright holder. If this law is broken, there is an unlimited fine.
This law states and requires that when you buy software, you:
- Do not have the right to give a copy to a friend.
- Cannot make a copy of the CD with a CD writer and then sell it.
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Cannot use the software on a unless the licence allows it.
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Cannot rent out the software without the permission of the copyright holder.
Ways that the law can be broken is in three ways:
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Using software without the proper license. So if you have a license to use a word processor on one stand alone computer but you then install it on all the machines in a network you are breaking the law.
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Downloading text or images from then internet and using them without saying where you got them from or without receiving copyrights owners permission.
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Copying a computer program you use at work and running it on a computer at home without permission from the copyright holder.
The Copy Right Law appeals to everyone and has to be obeyed, however, this law is many time ignored or cornered by people downloading desired software’s at their houses without anybody knowing, another problem with this law is that people import software’s like DVD’s from other countries very cheaply and distribute it in the UK.
So to attempt to reduce breach of Copy Right Law, software companies have taken certain measures to stop software piracy:
- The licence agreement is usually clearly printed on the packaging.
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Some games only work if a code is typed in; this code changes each time the is run and can be found by looking in the manual or using a special code-wheel which comes with the software.
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Some programs will only run if the is in the CD drive.
- Some programs will only run if a special piece of hardware called a dongle is plugged into the back of the computer.
I will now look at how the Copy Right Law affects our society:
HOW COPY RIGHT LAW AFFECTS MR. IRWIN:
- It means that Mr. Irwin is not allowed to download illegal music whether it is for him or for his students.
- It means that he cannot photocopy the whole of the text books without permission or that are copyright protected otherwise he would be breaking this law.
- It makes it illegal for him to copy video/ CD’s for students.
HOW COPY RIGHT LAW AFFECT MR. PATEL:
- He can not copy DVD’s and CD’s if he is not in a position to do so.
- He cannot copy or download software or music from the internet without permission
- He must have a license for software that he uses to assist in his health
HOW COPY RIGHT LAW AFFECT ME AS A STUDENT:
- It stops me from downloading illegal music from the internet
- It stops me from copying and pirating videos and DVDs
- It does not allow me to buy illegal audio and video tapes
HOW COPY RIGHT LAW AFFECT THE COMMUNITY:
- It stops idea store from copying copy righted work without permission
- Police cannot download/ copy illegal music
- The Bank cannot use the software’s that are not licensed to them