Protecting personal data

Question 1

Q1: Who might hold personal data about you?

Answer 1

A1: Various organizations such as your school, doctor, email provider, and other service providers might hold personal data about you.

Question 2

Q2: What type of data does your school hold about you?

Answer 2

A2: Your school holds data such as your name, address, date of birth, academic records, and emergency contact information.

Question 3

Q3: What type of data does your doctor hold about you?

Answer 3

A3: Your doctor holds medical records, including your health history, medications, allergies, and treatment plans.

Question 4

Q4: What type of data does your email provider hold about you?

Answer 4

A4: Your email provider holds your email address, contact list, emails, and possibly your calendar and other personal information

Question 5

Q5: Name some other organizations that might hold data about members of your family.

Answer 5

A5: Other organizations include banks, social media platforms, insurance companies, and government agencies.

Question 6

Q6: What information does Google hold about you if you use Google services like Chrome or Gmail?

Answer 6

A6: Google holds information such as your name, birthday, contact names and addresses, calendar events, mobile devices used, emails, web addresses typed, sites searched or bookmarked, and images viewed.

Question 7

Q7: How can you check what data Google holds about you?

Answer 7

A7: You can check what data Google holds about you on Google Dashboard.

Question 8

Q8: What information does the NHS hold about you?

Answer 8

A8: The NHS holds medical data, including your health records, treatments, and possibly anonymized data for research purposes.

Question 9

Q9: What is Care.data?

Answer 9

A9: Care.data is a scheme for sharing anonymized medical records with third parties for research and analysis.

Question 10

Q10: Why might individuals worry about the data held by Care.data?

Answer 10

A10: Individuals might worry because the data includes sensitive information like postcodes, dates of birth, NHS numbers, ethnicity, and gender, which could potentially be used to identify them.

Question 11

Q11: Can anyone legally hold data about you?

Answer 11

A11: No, there are rules and regulations about collecting and holding personal data. Organizations must register with the Data Protection Registrar and comply with the Data Protection Act.

Question 12

Q12: What are some key rules specified by the Data Protection Act?

Answer 12

A12: The data must be accurate and up to date, you have the right to see what data is held about you, and the data must be protected from unauthorized access.

Question 13

Q13: What is identity theft?

Answer 13

A13: Identity theft occurs when criminals access your personal data and use it to steal your identity, such as applying for jobs, bank accounts, or loans in your name.

Question 14

Q14: How can you minimize the chance of identity theft?

Answer 14

A14: You can minimize the chance of identity theft by protecting your personal information, being cautious about sharing data online, using strong passwords, and monitoring your accounts for suspicious activity.

Question 15

Q15: What are data harvesting tools?

Answer 15

A15: Data harvesting tools are legal and freely available tools that gather information about individuals from various sources, such as social media profiles and email addresses.

Question 16

Q16: How can you protect your identity online?

Answer 16

A16: Protect your identity by not posting photos taken at home with location sharing on, not including personal data in your profile, being aware of your privacy settings, and only adding people you know and trust to your network.