Why The Data Protection Act 1984 grew out of public concern about personal privacy in the face of rapidly developing computer technology. It provides new rights for individuals and demands good computer practice in handling information about people. The Act also enabled the United Kingdom to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Data Protection allowing data to flow freely between the United Kingdom and other European countries with similar laws, preventing damage to the economy and international trade which otherwise might have occurred. DPA The Data Protection Act is administered by the Data Protection Registrar, an independant officer who reports directly to Parliament and in essence, the Act is concerned with 'personal data' which is 'automatically processed'. It works in two ways, giving individuals certain rights whilst requiring those who record and use personal information on computer to be open about that use and to follow sound and proper practices.
Personal data is information about living, identifiable individuals.
This need not be particularly sensititve information, and can be as little as a name and address. Automatically processed means, broadly speaking, information which is processed by computer. It does not cover information which is held and processed manually, e.g. in ordinary paper files. A data user can also be a sole trader, partnership, or an individual. A data user need not necessarily own a computer.