What is Data Protection - with Examples

Hiding data belonging to a person or organization from other persons or organizations is called data protection. Almost all departments and organizations collect and maintain their data on computers.

Example

• A police department maintains records of different people.
• A bank maintains records of financial dealings of different persons.
• A hospital maintains data about the disease history of different patients etc.

 The personal data is maintained o computers of different organizations. But the owner of the personal data is the person to whom it belongs. This data can be used only for the purpose for which it was obtained. The use of this data for any other purpose is against the privacy of a person.

Example
A hospital can provide the personal data of one or more patients to medical researchers. They can use this data for research purpose or to make some other decisions. But if the hospital management distributes the personal data of a particular patient somewhere else, then this may disturb the patient (e.g. in case when the patient has some mental disorder or has a bad history). The data protection rules do not allow anyone (or organization) to misuse personal data of any person.