What is the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and when does it apply?
The Data Protection Act gives individuals (data subjects) a general right of access to the personal data that relates to them. These rights are known as subject access rights. Personal data may take the form of computerised or some manual or paper records. Those organisations which hold or process personal data must register the purposes with the Information Commissioner and are known as Data Controllers. The Act applies to all personally identifiable information about living individuals held in a computer or manual filing system ie being processed. The DPA does not apply to anonymised, unlinked data. The DPA does not apply to deceased data subjects, though there remains an ethical obligation of confidentiality to the relatives of the deceased subject.
