Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

Data Protection Act 1984/1998

The 'Data Protection Act 1984' (DPA) is a British Act of Parliament that provides a legal basis for the privacy and protection of data of UK citizens and businesses. Data disclosed by a party to another party may only be used for the specific purposes it was disclosed for. The data can only be kept for an appropriate length of time and must not be disclosed to other parties without consent of data owner. The Data Protection Act (1984) was subsequently amended (1998) to take account of the EC Data Protection Directive (1995). The Directive was an attempt to harmonize different European national laws across the whole EC.

Related Terms

Data Protection Act 1984/1998