Michelle Newman
Unit 4 – Business communication
Pass criteria 5 and 6, Merit criteria 2
P5 – Explain the legal and ethical issues in the relation to the use of business information
P6 – Explain the operational issues in relation to the use of business information
M2 – Analyse the legal, ethical and operational issues in relation to the use of business
information, using appropriate examples
Legal and ethical issues
Legal issues include the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
and the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Tesco has to ensure that they comply with all these
legal factors otherwise the business could face a fine and/or the person(s) responsible could
be prosecuted.
The Data Protection Act 1998 ensures that peoples personal information isn’t misused. The
data that Tesco collects has to be collected lawfully, which means that the person they are
collected data from needs to understand what it is going to be used for and they need to
give it willingly. Tesco collects people’s personal information when they buy groceries online
and store it in a database so the person doesn’t have to type in their information every time
they make a purchase. Tesco has to ensure they only use this information for what they say
they are going to, in this instance to process their order, to deliver it and to take a payment
for it. Tesco should only collect the amount of data they need to ensure the order is
processed satisfactorily. For the grocery example, they would not need to know the
person’s height or weight so they wouldn’t ask it, similarly they would need to know the
address of the person so they order can arrive at their door. Tesco needs to give an option
for people to update their information to ensure that it is kept up-to-date so there will be
no issues with orders. If a person no longer wants to have an online grocery account with
Tesco, then there needs to be an option for someone to delete their account and Tesco
needs to delete their data off of the database. The major thing that Tesco need to ensure is
that the database is protected and cannot be accessed or hacked by anyone unlawfully, this
duty is Tesco’s responsibility. The data cannot also be transferred to somewhere, where
there aren’t adequate protection laws of the data. Tesco has to ensure that they do all of
this to comply with the Data Protection Act.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000
means that Tesco has to supply data to
anyone that requests it, if the
information is held by the organisation, if
it is not too expensive to retrieve the
information, and if the public interest
isn’t effected by the release of the
information. An example of where Tesco
complies with this act is an online site
where anyone can request information
from Tesco relating to the NHS Screenshot of requests of information from the public
pharmacies in their stores1.
Unit 4 – Business communication
Pass criteria 5 and 6, Merit criteria 2
P5 – Explain the legal and ethical issues in the relation to the use of business information
P6 – Explain the operational issues in relation to the use of business information
M2 – Analyse the legal, ethical and operational issues in relation to the use of business
information, using appropriate examples
Legal and ethical issues
Legal issues include the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
and the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Tesco has to ensure that they comply with all these
legal factors otherwise the business could face a fine and/or the person(s) responsible could
be prosecuted.
The Data Protection Act 1998 ensures that peoples personal information isn’t misused. The
data that Tesco collects has to be collected lawfully, which means that the person they are
collected data from needs to understand what it is going to be used for and they need to
give it willingly. Tesco collects people’s personal information when they buy groceries online
and store it in a database so the person doesn’t have to type in their information every time
they make a purchase. Tesco has to ensure they only use this information for what they say
they are going to, in this instance to process their order, to deliver it and to take a payment
for it. Tesco should only collect the amount of data they need to ensure the order is
processed satisfactorily. For the grocery example, they would not need to know the
person’s height or weight so they wouldn’t ask it, similarly they would need to know the
address of the person so they order can arrive at their door. Tesco needs to give an option
for people to update their information to ensure that it is kept up-to-date so there will be
no issues with orders. If a person no longer wants to have an online grocery account with
Tesco, then there needs to be an option for someone to delete their account and Tesco
needs to delete their data off of the database. The major thing that Tesco need to ensure is
that the database is protected and cannot be accessed or hacked by anyone unlawfully, this
duty is Tesco’s responsibility. The data cannot also be transferred to somewhere, where
there aren’t adequate protection laws of the data. Tesco has to ensure that they do all of
this to comply with the Data Protection Act.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000
means that Tesco has to supply data to
anyone that requests it, if the
information is held by the organisation, if
it is not too expensive to retrieve the
information, and if the public interest
isn’t effected by the release of the
information. An example of where Tesco
complies with this act is an online site
where anyone can request information
from Tesco relating to the NHS Screenshot of requests of information from the public
pharmacies in their stores1.
