The freedom of Information therefore affects the local businesses and individuals within the community of Leek and has a positive impact on the community in general. The Act is effective in maintaining a healthy balance with the public and local corporations regarding information and stops people holding excessive information on specific individuals within the community of Leek.
The Computer Misuse Act (1990) – The use of ICT on my home, social and Work related Life.
The piece of legislation that affects my use of ICT is the Computer Misuse Act (1990). This law mainly affects my Work Related life.
The computer misuse act was created to secure computer material against unauthorised access or modification. Its fundamental purpose is to combat “hacking.”
The Act covers and therefore prevents:
- Unauthorised access to computer material.
- Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences.
- Unauthorised modification of computer material.
At school every student has a user area on the schools computer network. Every student has a login username and a login password. The computer misuse act mainly prevents unauthorised students hacking and possibly modifying and stealing other students’ work.
At Leek High School there is a policy in place where using others’ passwords, trespassing into others’ folders and documentation and hacking are not permitted and there are sanctions implemented to deal with violators.
Another example of how the legislation affects my life at school is that it prevents me from logging in to others workstations and sending emails via that user address.
The legislation protects me from computer misuse as no other student has the right to violate these laws and policies.
The Computer Misuse Act is effective in protecting and preventing individuals from computer misuse. The Act is an efficient way of preventing the three bulleted points very well indeed and therefore is effectual in generally protecting me and generally preventing me from misusing computers.
The Data Protection Act (1998) – The Use of ICT on an adult in Employment
The piece of legislation that affects my dad the most is the Data Protection Act (1998).
The Data Protection Act came into force on March 1 2000. The act is designed to set rules for processing personal information and applies to paper records as well as those held on computers.
Personal Information includes information such as information about living, identifiable individuals that includes any personal details or identifiable data such as name or address of a person.
Any business storing or processing personal data must comply with the eight principles Of The Data Protection Act.
The principles are as follows:
- Fairly and lawfully processed
- Processed for limited purposes and not in any manner incompatible with those purposes
- Adequate, relevant and not excessive
- Accurate
- Not kept for longer than is necessary
- Processed in line with the data subject's rights
- Secure
- Not transferred to countries without adequate protection
The Data Protection Act mainly affects businesses such as GB Haulage ltd. My dad is the Transport Manager for this firm and deals with client and business information.
The legislation affects my dad by making sure the information held on his computer about clients is not too extensive and is absolutely correct. He must follow the 8 principles carefully as to not violate this act. This means that the information he keep must be for specific and lawful purposes only, for example he can only keep relevant information on customers and other associates, such as their address and orders and not their marital status or anything like that as it is not relevant to my dads work or the reason why he needs the data.
Overall the legislation effectively protects the firms he deals with and his firm alike from misuse of personal information whatever type of firm with very few loopholes where the legislation can be violated, a downfall of the act is that it limits what my dad can actually do with the data, and the user has to register with the Data protection office which could be time consuming and inconvenient for the individual and corporation involved.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988/99) -The use of ICT by someone with Special and Particular Needs
The Copyright, Designs and Patents act affects Stephen Hawking the Most.
The legislation is intended to make using software without a licence an offence because it is someone's 'intellectual property'. Software authors have certain rights to ensure their work is not used without permission. Copying software (including computer programmes and games) is illegal and people have been jailed for doing this. For example an author of a book might hold the copyright for up to 70 years.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1989 make it illegal to steal or to create copies of software. It makes it illegal to make copies of software; make copies of manuals or allow copies to be made unless you have a licence from the owner of the copyright. It is also an offence to run the software on more than one computer at the same time, unless that is covered in the licence or user contract.
Stephen Hawking uses custom built Software from Intel engineers and a programme called Equalizer, which was written by a company called Words Plus Inc. This software allows Mr Hawking to meet his personal and Work related needs and is specifically designed by the appropriate corporation. This means that the company, either Intel or Words Plus Inc are the owners of this software or “literacy Work” and that it must not be copied or stolen due to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.
This legislation affects Stephen in a number of ways, It means that he cannot copy or reproduce the software he uses as the software author would have the right to take legal action against Mr Hawking if necessary.
