The Data Protection Act 1998 is an act of the United Kingdom Parliament defining the ways in which
information about living people may be legally used and handled. And this data will not be misused
by any other business or people. Subway uses this act when people sign up for the loyalty cards and
subway uses this act because subway will have to keep the customers trust and people would only
sign up for the loyalty card if their data is safe and it will not be misused by any other people or any
other business. The Advantage of data protection might be that the information of the people will be
kept safe and so that not everyone can use it and so that no one can use it for a bad uses. However
the Disadvantages are that it could be leaked out accidently because there might be mistakes and so
that as a result this can be leaked out to the public.
2. Freedom of information act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public
authorities. The freedom of information act covets any recorded information that is held by a public
authority, public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state
schools and police forces. However it does not cover charities. The Act does not give people access
to their own personal data (information about themselves) such as their health records or credit
reference file. If a member of the public wants to see information that a public authority holds about
them, they should make a subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1998.The Advantage
of freedom of information is that the public is kept knowledgeable about the actions of its
government. However the disadvantage is if the release of other information like medical
information is release then this might affect the relationships between the public body and the
person making the enquiry and the cost is very high so that the authorities might refuse to give out
the information.
3. Computer misuse act 1990
The Computer Misuse Act is designed to protect computer users against wilful attacks and theft of
information. The act makes it an offence to access or even attempt to access a computer system
without the appropriate authorisation. Therefore, even if a hacker tries to get into a system but is
unsuccessful they can be prosecuted using this law. The act also covers unauthorised access to
different parts of a computer system, therefore, a person may be allowed to access one part of a
system but not others, and the accessing of the other parts will be an offence. The advantage of
computer misuse act is that the if the person forgets the password then this will be hard for the
person to get into that account again, this will also hold the hackers accountable for their actions
and will make them think a lot before hacking. However the disadvantage is that many people don’t
agree with some laws that are set so that they might have been hacking anyway. Also sometimes it
could also be an accident as someone may have forgotten to close any important information and
someone may accidental access it especially if it was in a public area.