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The Data Protection Act 1998:

Organisations are allowed to use personal information on clients in some ways but there are limits to what they can do with it, these criteria are outlined by the Data Protection Act. This act ensure that information is used lawfully and fairly, is a limited and adequate manner which means data is only kept for as long as necessary. It has even stronger precautions for 'sensitive information' such as ethnic background, political options, religious beliefs, health, sexual health and criminal records. As well as protecting data, the Data Protection Act also gives you the right to see what information an organisation has about you. There are however some cases where an organisation can withhold information, these include national security and armed forces information, judicial or ministerial information (court dates), information involving crime and tax information. Some organisations will charge for providing the information but these charges are normally no more than £10.

The Computer Misuse Act 1990:

Before 1990, there were no laws in place to combat hacking problems when is was clearly worse than crimes that were already legislated against. The Computer Misuse Act protects against access to unauthorised computer material with intent to commit or facilitate a crime or modification of computer material as well as making anything to carry out a computer misuse offence.  These offences now have relevant punishments, in the same order, accessing computer material warrants a maximum six month in prison and/or a reasonable fine. If accessing this material to commit or facilitate a crime as well as modifying computer material will get you a maximum five years in jail and a large fine. And making material to facilitate hacking you can again receive up to five years imprisonment but it will be an unlimited fine. These laws would definitely deter any potential hackers but since these laws have been in place, they haven't really been enforced to their full potential as hackers are sometimes untraceable and don't get punished because hacking on a small scale isn't seen as a bad crime.

The Consumer Credit Act 1974:

This act covers people who enter into credit agreements which range from £100 - £30,000. It regulates enforcement of agreement for both the creditor and debtor. In order for a business to be able to offer to trade using credit, they have to obtain a license from the Office of Fair Trading, the act also enforces rules for credit advertising, so no one is lied to. As always seen on TV, traders are forced to show the total cost when lending money as Annual Percentage Rate or APR. Adverts for traders such as pay day loaners are tainted by these rates as they are ridiculously high in terms of APR. It also forces potential customers to be shown the procedure that will be carried out should the debtor not be able to pay back what they took, which also has a negative effect on pay day lenders. Courts can demand that relief is given to debtors who have ended up in an extortionate credit transaction. Oddly, a transaction is only cancellable if the deal is not agreed on the traders premises, and can only be cancelled in writing before 5 days have past from the day of the deal.

Trading Standards:

Trading Standards has a responsibility to protect the population against traders who act unfairly or 'rogue traders'. They are permitted to offer advice to consumers, educate and advise traders who aren't aware that they are breaking the law and they can take legal action against these traders. Reasons that Trading Standards should be contacted include: buying something without being giving a full briefing about it's information, buying fake goods, being forced or heavily persuaded into buying goods by a trader when you wouldn't have normally, traders have made false claims about goods, if you want to know is you have a problem in the eyes of trading standards or if you want to find out more about a business. If you do have a problem they will be able to do a variety things including: mediation between consumer and trader, giving contact details of local experts that can test goods as to whether they are counterfeit or not.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000:

In short the freedom of information act allows the public to access information that is being held by authorities. It does this by making this public authorities publish information about what they are doing as well as allowing members of the public randomly request information from these large authorities. Scotland didn't embrace the act until 2002 and have their own Scottish law. Whilst this act involves authorities like the NHS and state schools but does not cover other organisations that receive money from the public such as charities and companies from the private sector that put on public functions. The public can request letters, computer files, sound or video recordings, documents and photographs. This act doesn't allow the public to see information about individuals, but the data protection act does, which I've previously mentioned.

Copyright Legislation:

Copyright means that an owner of intellectual property has an exclusive right to distribute and give permission for others to use it. Copyright is automatically delegated to the creator of any new work even if the creator does not register formally for copyright.Work is protected 70 years after the authors death in the UK and 50 years after in the US. This work must be: sound, recording, literary work, musical work, dramatic work, broadcasts, films and 'typographical arrangement of published additions'.