The Act gives legal rights to individuals (data subjects) concerning personal data held
about them. These rights are intended to ensure that data subjects should not suffer
from companies misusing
data they hold about them. The seven main rights that an individual has are :
| Rights of the Individual
|
| Subject Access
| An individual is entitled to be supplied by any data controller with a
copy of any personal data held about him or her. The data controller may charge a small
administration fee for this service.
|
| Correction or Deletion
| If data is inaccurate then a data subject may complain to the courts and have
the data blocked, deleted or corrected.
|
| Damage Protection
| A data subject may prevent any processing which is likely to cause damage or distress.
|
| Direct Marketing
| A data subject may prevent processing of data for the purposes of direct marketing.
|
| Decision Taking
| A data subject may demand that a data controller does not take any decision which
will significantly affect him solely on the basis of automatic processing.
|
| Complaint to the Commissioner
| A data subject who considers there has been a breach of one of the
Principles of the Act by a data controller is entitled to
complain to the Information Commissioner who must
consider the complaint and can prosecute the data controller.
|
| Compensation
| A data subject can seek compensation through the courts if damage has been
caused by the loss, unauthorised disclosure, unauthorised destruction or use of
inaccurate data.
|
The "Direct Marketing" right is designed to help individuals avoid receiving unwanted
mailshots and telesales calls. The "Decision Taking" right is intended to protect individuals from unfair treatment
as a result of computerised procedures such as "credit scoring" which is used to decide whether or not to let a person
borrow money.
