ICT Equipment Legislative Acts now have laws that everyone must abide by, they can still use their ICT for their every need but cannot exploit this use by accessing areas of information or data which are not intended to be seen by the eyes of the public. This primarily includes government data and other people's personal information. The Data Protection Act 1998 The Data Protection Act is basically the "right to privacy". This is what anyone who has personal data and so on on their PC expects, since you don't want other people accessing your information. The Data Protection Act was enacted into law in 1984 but was replaced by a new one, the 1998 Act which included European Union law. There are 8 principles for personal data:1. Be treated fairly and legally2. Be obtained for specific and legitimate purposes3. Be appropriately relevant and not excessive for the purpose4. Be accurate and up to date5. Do not keep longer than necessary6. Be treated with respect for the rights of the interested parties7. Be protected from loss, damage and unauthorized and illegal processing8. Not be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area. These are the 8 areas where data protection law is under scrutiny. Suppose for example I had bank account details on my PC and I was exchanging bank details over the internet, no one other than me should be able to access that data as it is my personal bank account, but if anyone managed to access such data and changed something in my personal account would violate data protection law. This law can also be breached if someone were to send my personal data to another source without consulting me or asking my permission to send it would be in breach of data protection law.