The data protection act is extremely important to safeguard the privacy rights of individuals. Various kinds of data regarding individuals are available in various forms to institutions in UK. In order to prevent these data from being misused, the data protection act came into effect in 1998.

According to the tenets of this law, data gathered about the individual should not be used for any other purpose other than what it was collected for. The individual has a right to know the kind of data that is being available about them. Also, the data collected should not outlive the purpose for which it was collected. There are various other similar clauses that come under this law that helps to protect the individual’s right to privacy.