These regulations were introduced for employees who use VDUs for a significant amount of time while working to reduce repetitive strain injury, fatigue and eye problems which were very common occurrences in the 80s and early 90s. To abide by these regulations employers must
- Analyse workstations and assess and reduce risks
- Ensure workstations meet minimum requirements
- Provide health and safety training for employees so they can use all areas of workstation equipment correctly
- Arrange and pay for eye tests
Its not only the employers that take responsibility, employees also have to
- Bring problems to the attention of the employer as soon as possible
- Use workstations and equipment correctly
And not abiding by these rules can too result in criminal prosecution.
Since these regulations were brought in there have been less injuries and illnesses, as shown below.
This act was passed in 1984 due to the increase on worry over the rapidly developing technology and the privacy of them over the web. This act covers automatically processed personal data which can be used in conjunction with good information handling practice. There are two ways in which this works
- It gives individuals certain rights while requiring those who record data
- It uses personal information on computer to be open about that use and to follow proper practices
There was another act passed in the year 1998 which extended the rights for data subjects
There are eight principles of the data protection act, they are:
- Fairly and lawfully processed,
- Processed for limited purposes,
- Adequate, relevant and not excessive,
- Accurate,
- Not kept longer than necessary,
- Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights,
- Secure,
- Not transferred to countries without adequate protection.
These 8 principles are protect more now than ever before which is a problem for many businesses because it is a lot harder for them to get hold of the information of a potential customer.
Back in the early 1980’s hacking in the UK was not illegal, because4 there was no law which a criminal prosecution could use, although it was a disciplinary offence. There are three specific criminal offences in the computer misuse act of 1990 and they are;
- Unauthorised access to computer programs or data
- Unauthorised access with a further criminal intent
- Unauthorised modification of computer material (e.g. programs or data)
There haven’t been many prosecutions under these laws probably due to the reluctant ness of organisations to admit that their computer security systems procedure has been breached.
The Copyright, Designs and patents act 1988 covers a wide range of property including software and music. The provision of this act makes it illegal to
- Run pirated software
- Copy software
- Transmit software over a telecommunications line
Usually when software is copied it is sold illegally and this often is the case in many places, also program ideas are often stolen by competitors, for example many years ago Apple unsuccessfully sued Microsoft for stealing the lock and feel of their graphical interface, and this is just one example things like this go on each day. It is becoming increasingly harder to copy software due to the huge clampdown.
This is not a law it is only an agreement which protects the users of the internet. Once a website has registered and paid a small fee they can show the ICR (Internet Content Register) seal. This shows the user hat this site conforms to the code of practice. This includes these seven headings
- Audience
- Advertising
- Contracts
- Copyright and information ownership
- Information
- Applets, browser scripts and CGI usage
- Mail and news
