Laws and Legislations (ICT)

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Laws and Legislations

Laws and legislations were introduced due to the fact that ICT was growing and since the uses of large computerized databases as they became quite useful for sensitive personal data to be stored without the individual’s knowledge.  Employers, credit card companies or insurance companies, could access this confidential data.  Therefore personal privacy is important as it is our human right to not want personal information on age, religious beliefs, family circumstances or academic qualifications to be accessed by others without permission.  

An Individual User

An individual user would use various software applications in everyday life throughout ICT.  The main uses of ICT software are:

 

  • E-mail                            
  • Internet
  • Mail merge
  • Excel
  • FrontPage
  • Access

Due to the increased of the amount of information available particularly on the Internet it has been a concern for the interest taken by hackers into and stealing data therefore the government had to produce may different legislations to prevent this from occurring.  Legislations were also created for the misuse of data and viruses as well. Before 1990 there wasn’t a law against any misuse of computers so it was legal to send a virus to someone’s computer.   Since then there have been several legislations, which have come into place that prevent this from happening. Suitable protection acts:

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Many of these legislations take effect in our community including cyber café bars and libraries.  Cyber cafes have many users using the same computer so it is important that information is protected and not found by others.  There are also many people using the same computers in libraries.  Systems have to be designed to prevent information being leaked so users are reassured of their privacy. 

Computer Misuse Act (1990)

The Computer Misuse Act was used to rectify these situations as it is used to stop various criminal offences taking place.  The three main offences are hacking, ...

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