2. Why do we need it?

Many organisations store large amounts of personal information about people on their computer systems. This may be data on customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc.

The increasing amount of personal data being stored began to worry people. Some of their concerns were:

Who will be able to access this data? Will information about me be available over the Internet, and therefore vulnerable to hackers? Can my records be sold on to someone else?

Is the data accurate? If it is stored, processed and transmitted by computer, who will check that it is accurate? People often think it must be true if 'it says so on the computer'.

Will the data be sold on to another company? For example, could my health records be sold to a company where I have applied for a job? Could my personal details, collected by my employer, be used by a commercial company for targeting junk mail?

Will data about me be stored even if it is not needed?

In order to address these concerns, the Data Protection Act (1998) was passed