Lots of people have heard about ‘Data Protection’ but not many are clear about what it is and what it applies to.
The Data Protection Act applies to information about living, identifiable people, such as job applicants and workers.
Through the data protection principles, it regulates the way information about them can be collected, handled and used.
It also gives them rights such as access to the information, and compensation if things go wrong.
It applies to computerised information and to well-structured manual records, such as certain files about customers.