information
Legal Issues
Data Protection Act 1998- The data protection act applies to virtually all businesses. This
act covers how personal information is used by different organisations which can be a
private business or the government. The kind of information this covers can be names,
addresses, photographs, card details and phone numbers. As a business your company
Matlin insurance would be handling and storing a lot of personal information such as
names, contact information, employment history, cars, addresses etc. Matlin insurance
should follow these 8 principles to make sure they are following and not breaking the
law. These are: information must be accurate, kept secure, not transferred outside E.U,
used fairly and lawfully, kept no longer than you need it for, handled according to
people’s data protection act, used for the right purposes and used in a relevant not
excessive way.
This is an example of the business not following
the data protection act. This big corporation
failed to keep customers information secure as
hackers targeted there databases. They were to
blame because they are a multibillion
corporation which failed to invest in good
security measurements.
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/01/24/so
ny-fined-250k-over-serious-data-protection-act-
breach
Another example of the data protection act
breached is by a company called Torbay care
trust. After 1,00+ employees sensitive
information such as names, religion, sexuality
was leaked and published, this cost the company
the £175,000.
http://brianpennington.co.uk/2012/08/16/who-
has-breached-the-data-protection-act-in-2012-
find-the-complete-list-here/
How it can affect the company- If Matlin insurance got hacked or one of employees
leaked the data they would be responsible for the information get stolen because they
did not have good secuirty measuments in place, they would be breaking the law
leading to a fine up to £500,000 which can affect the company the finicially and
furthermore jail for the company managers.