Published 10 Jun 2024

What is the Purpose of the Data Protection Act?

By, Pulsant
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What is the Purpose of the Data Protection Act?

The Data Protection Act (DPA), enacted in 1988, is something all businesses handling, storing, and managing data need to abide by. This is important for your industry regulations and compliance, so making sure you know what the DPA is, what it does, why it does it, and how to remain compliant is vital for your business's reputation.  

What is data protection legislation?

Data protection legislation is created, designed, and implemented to ensure the protection of data usage within the UK. Both the EU, with GDPR, and the UK, with DPA, have these in place to ensure the lawful use of all data collected. These legislations regulate the use of data within UK organisations and ensure that all customers' identities are kept as safe as possible.  

What is the purpose of the Data Protection Act?

The Data Protection Act is made to empower users to better dictate how their data is used, stored, and managed. User consent is vital when it comes to collecting your user’s sensitive information. In this way, users will have the right to consent to the use of their data and to help businesses better use the data lawfully.  

What are the principles of the Data Protection Act?

The UK’s GDPR, the Data Protection Act, set out seven key principles businesses must abide by to lawfully process data. These seven key principles are: 

  • Lawfulness, fairness and transparency 
  • Accuracy 
  • Accountability 
  • Storage limitations 
  • Purpose limitations 
  • Data minimisations 
  • Integrity and confidentiality (security)
     

What does the Data Protection Act protect?

The Data Protection Act is designed to protect both businesses and their customers. It ensures that your business is lawfully using, storing, and managing your data and that customers and users have the confidence and ability to consent to the use and management of their data. By giving your customers the ability to fully consent to their data collection and management, they can know how their data is being used, why, and where it is going.