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When is data "personal data" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998? (DPA 1998 version)
Practical Law UK Practice Note 9-376-4246 (Approx. 18 pages)
When is data "personal data" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998? (DPA 1998 version)
This note sets out the questions to be considered when trying to determine if information can be considered "personal data" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Note: With effect from 22 August 2017, this resource is no longer being maintained. From 25 May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) replaced the current regime established by the Data Protection Act 1998. It is supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018. For legal developments between 22 August 2017 and 24 May 2018, please refer to the legal updates on the topic pages for this resource: see General and Employee data and monitoring.
The European Commission is reviewing a related piece of legislation, the E-Privacy Directive (2002/58/EC), implemented in the UK by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (2003/2426) (as amended) (PECR). Their replacement, the draft E-Privacy Regulation (COM (2017) 10 final) (draft ePR), was not agreed in time to align with the GDPR on 25 May (see Legal update, Government confirms delay to draft E-Privacy Regulation). The Information Commissioner has confirmed that PECR (with GDPR standard of consent) will continue to apply until the draft ePR is finalised. We are updating our direct marketing, cookie and other related resources to reflect this. For further information see E-Privacy Regulation tracker. For further information and ICO guidance, see Practice note, Overview of GDPR: UK perspective: Direct marketing and draft E-Privacy Regulation.
Please be aware that as we regularly update weblinks embedded in our resources so they link to the most recent versions of ICO guidance and codes of practice, those versions may be more current than the law stated date on this resource.
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