Data Protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Data Protection - Essay ExampleFor example, it is because of the emergence of a borderless familiarity that law enforcement agencies increasingly seek to be exempted from the full rigors of the privacy laws. That this kind of exemption can lead, in turn, to misuse and abuse of these powers is perhaps one of the costs we curb to bear if law enforcement agencies generally are to be effective in combating crime in the information age.However, before evaluating how ethically right is the States intervention in the privacy of the members of the society for its proposed public interests, the very terminology of loneliness needs to be understood. Extensive material in literature on the definition of Privacy reveals that the terms meaning differs under various approaches to privacy offered by different scholars. Privacys most widely spread definition has been coined by Warren & Brandeis (1890, p. 205) who define privacy, as an inseparable value, the right to be let alone (Stahl, 2007). A nother approach to define privacy by (Stalder, 2002) is that of informational self-determination which sees privacy as the right to determine who accesses person-related data. This reading is widely spread in continental Europe whereby privacy may be taken in terms of property which includes the protection of an separates financial records, wellness records, ex-directory telephone numbers, criminal records, etc. If person-related information can be treated as property, then privacy issues can be reduced to the more established (intellectual) property law as Spinello (2000) puts it. As an instrumental value, privacy has been described as an important aspect of humans where a truly closed-door space is necessary for mental health (Nissenbaum, 2001), is required to trust others and, more generally, to develop good social relations (Gallivan. & Depledge, 2003 Johnson, 2001).A functioning society thus requires the preparedness of privacy for its members (Introna, 2000) and that appl ies to data both computerized and on paper records of its members. The UK legislatures stance on their privacy policy brought somewhat the Data protection Act in 1998 which supersedes the early Act of 1984, which aimed to implement Council Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free motion of such data. Essentially, any person or organization (the data controller) collecting and processing personal data (that is, data which relate to a living individual who can be identified from those data, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual) must register with the Information Commissioner, and must specify various items of information about the data collected and the uses to which the data will be put (Harris 2006, p. 124).The DPAs purpose was to create universal European standards for the collection, storage and processing of personal information. It allowed certain individuals to cheat what inform ation about them is being held. If enough members of these groups applied their rights they might be able to amass sufficient information to