Internet data protection

Against the background of the factors and issues discussed in the preceding paragraphs, this section will consider the evolution of data protection law in the UK and in the European context and then will move on to a discussion of specific problems in applying the existing regime to the Internet and World-Wide Web. 

One potential area of anomaly may be the way in which data protection laws are applied to on-line services such as those provided via the Internet or World-Wide Web. Some of the challenges for data protection legislation raised by the increased use of online services have been discussed in Section 12.3. Can the provisions of the 1995 directive, which may perhaps be regarded as the current state of the art as far as data protection legislation is concerned, meet these challenges The difficult issues are not so much the cases where the data subject is aware that data has been collected and used or even where this information is made available on the Internet since this is, arguably, the type of activity for which data protection law was designed. Rather the problems, as explained in Section 12.3, are more likely to arise as a consequence of the traceability of operations on-line in situations where the potential data subject may not be aware that... 

Internet, the manner in which data protection law has developed in the different jurisdictions may be crucial. 

These issues are under consideration by the various parties involved and the Working Party on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data (set up by the Data Protection Directive) adopted a working document Processing of personal data on the Internet in February 1999. The matter has also been discussed in the... 

Council of Europe and the OECD whose origirral guidelines were irrstrumental in the development of data protection law. The Working party has also set up an Internet Task Force , which has amongst its objectives a corrsideration of the way in which the provisions of the directive can be implemented in an homogeneous way in relation to data protection on the Irrtemet, particrrlarly in relation to e-mail and related applications. 

Data protection is only one aspect of privacy which may be compromised by the increasing nse of computers and computer netwoiks. As discussed above, whereas anonymity on the Internet may be a positive asset in the protection of informational privacy, it may also provide a perfect shield for more scurrilous activities. Even without the cover of anonymity, the various methods available for the dissemination of information on computer netwoiks provide fertile ground for the propagation of opprobrious material about others. The unicpie characteristics of computer netwoiks in being able to communicate information to large numbers of people in different geographical locations almost instantaneously may well lead to the Internet becoming, if not quite a safe haven, at least the preferred choice for such activity. 

The passing of the Data Protection Act 1998, implementing the Framework European Directive on data protection (1992) is less momentous than the development of the Internet. Nevertheless, it is a important and substantial change to the law relating to data protection, which will have a significant effect on the practices of many software engineers. It has led to a complete rewriting of Chapter 12. 

In addition, procedures should be available for more normal use of the Internet, whether it is used for regulated applications or not. These are procedures that should help protect the computer and data against accidental or incidental attack from outside. 

Researchers query interactions flow across the public networks (e.g., the Internet), resulting in security exposure. For example, a pharmaceutical company or a biotechnology company could figure out the research topics and approaches of its competitor by sniffing the data traffic between the competitor and the public data banks. Therefore protection of intellectual properties can be compromised and become a challenge when employing this type of traditional solution approach. 

Regardless of formal security requirements, all analytical data should be treated as a valuable and irreplaceable resource. Data security begins with physical security of the facility discussed above, and is maintained through protection of computer hardware, software and Internet accessibility. 

Effective network security is important to ensure ERP data are not corrupted or accessed by unauthorized personnel. Threats can come from viruses or external sources such as vandals via the Internet. More than 10,000 viruses exist, with an estimated 6 new viruses appearing each day. Network virus protection combats this threat but requires constant updates to detect new strains (e.g., the recent Laroux virus). Installing a firewall is one of the best ways to protect networks from attacks via the Internet. Whatever the protection strategy employed, close monitoring and auditing is important to ensure the protection is effective. 

The telecommunications sector provides voice and data service to puhhc and private users through a complex and diverse puhhc-network infrastructure encompassing the Public Switched Telecommunications Network (PSTN), the Internet, and private enterprise networks. The PSTN provides switched circuits for telephone, data, and leased point-to-point services. Because the government and critical infrastructure industries rely heavily on the public telecommunications infrastructure for vital communications services, the sector s protection initiatives are particularly important. (PCCIP, 1997). 

It should be understood that a complete and final catalog of pollutants and their effects cannot be given new substances are constantly entering the terrestrial chemical network, and negative effects often become apparent only after a considerable time. The number of chemical substances for which reasonably complete environmental analysis is available remains a relatively small proportion of the whole in spite of the best efforts of environmental chemists and engineers. Availability of information and data on pollution matters has, however, been much enhanced by the proliferation of enviromnent-related sites on the Internet there are far too matty to attempt to list or categorize here, but the most comprehensive is probably that of the Enviromnental Protection Agency (http //www.epa.gov). 

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