| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to make new provision for the regulation of the processing of information relating to individuals, including the obtaining, holding, use or disclosure of such information. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 1998 c. 29 |
| Territorial extent |
|
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 16 July 1998 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repeals/revokes | Data Protection Act 1984 |
| Repealed by | Data Protection Act 2018 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Data Protection Act 1984 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act to regulate the use of automatically processed information relating to individuals and the provision of services in respect of such information. |
| Citation | 1984 c. 35 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 12 July 1984 |
| Repealed | 1 March 2000 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Data Protection Act 1998 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) (DPA) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in an organised paper filing system. It enacted provisions from the European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive 1995 on the protection, processing, and movement of data.
Under the 1998 DPA, individuals had legal rights to control information about themselves. Most of the Act did not apply to domestic use,[1] such as keeping a personal address book. Anyone holding personal data for other purposes was legally obliged to comply with this Act, subject to some exemptions. The Act defined eight data protection principles to ensure that information was processed lawfully.
It was superseded by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) on 23 May 2018. The DPA 2018 supplements the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect on 25 May 2018. The GDPR regulates the collection, storage, and use of personal data significantly more strictly.[2]
- ^ Data Protection Act 1998, Part IV (Exemptions), Section 36 Archived 24 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Office of Public Sector Information, accessed 6 September 2007
- ^ Ford, Michael (March 1999). "Recent legislation. The Data Protection Act 1998". Industrial Law Journal. 28: 57–60. doi:10.1093/ilj/28.1.57.