Data Protection Act (M2)

400 Words2 Pages
The Data Protection Act Over the recent years, the Data Protection Act has been put into place into organisations, such as the NHS, which prevents certain data being held about an individual without their permission. The data protection act prevents discriminatory practices take place in a health and social care setting. The Data Protection Act means that you have a right to ask an organisation not to hold or use information about you that causes substantial unwarranted damage or distress. The data protection act prevents this having a negative effect on an individual’s physical and mental wellbeing as revealing information would be an infringement of rights as it is a person’s human rights to have their data protected. If confidential data is shared publicly this could cause an individual’s self-esteem to decrease dramatically therefore the implementation of the data protection act in organisations is essential so this does not take place. The health sector handles some of the most sensitive personal data, and patients have the right to expect that information will be looked after. It is important that all cases of discrimination which occur in health, public health and adult social care services are reported at the earliest opportunity, and are handled effectively. The Date Protection Act ensures that these types of discriminatory practices don’t take place by making it illegal for organisations to reveal any of the sensitive data they keep to anybody else. This prevents infringement of rights as it is a person’s human rights to have their data protected at all times. When organisations are dealing with personal information, they need to make sure that labels and stereotypes/judgments are not made from the information they hold as this is a form on discrimination. It is a criminal offence to breach the Data Protection Act (1998) and doing so can result in
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