Data Privacy: the UK Experience

Abstract

There are two main reasons why the government decided that it was necessary to legislate on data protection: first, in order to ratify the Council of Europe Data Protection Convention (the Convention). Without such ratification, firms operating in the UK could be placed at a considerable disadvantage by comparison to those based in other countries with data protection legislation. The Convention permits ratifying countries to refuse personal information to be transferred to other countries which do not have comparable data protection law. This would clearly pose a threat to UK firms with international interests, particularly the activities of British computer bureaux which process a great deal of data for customers overseas.