This act made it so that peoples personal information would not aloud to be given out to unauthorized users. There are eight principles in the data protection act to make the data private:
1. Personal data must be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully.
2. Personal data must be held for specific purposes only
3. Personal data must not be used for anything other than the original purpose
4. Personal data must be relevant and adequate
5. Personal data must be accurate and up to date
6. Personal data must not be kept longer than necessary
7. Personal data must be made available to the individual and if its wrong it must be corrected.
8. Personal data must be kept secure.
(See also: Computer Misuse act 1990and Patents Act 1998)
