P5 explain the legal and ethical issues in relation to the use of business information. In this essay I will be explaining the legal and ethical issues in relation to the use of business information at River Island What are legal issues? These are a matter requiring legal expertise. These are many items on legislation (law) to protect the use business information and if misused could lead to serious penalties. Data protection Act (1998) River Island and many businesses use information regarding people and their customers, this act protect information about their customers being misused and used to commit offence. The information that river island use must be: • • •
Obtained fairly and lawfully‐ this means that the company hasn’t broken the law, while getting the information. Used for the purpose of what you are doing‐ this means that if you as a sale assistant are asked to do something with this information you must do so. The information should not be kept for longer than necessary‐ this means that if a customer wants their details to be taken from the company or wants to remove their card number, River Island as a business MUST do that.
How River Island uses the data protection act: If any data is breached in the company, River Island will have to pay a substantial amount of money to get this information back, also if customers or many customers’ cards have been cloned and this person is committing fraud, River Island will again have to use a lot of money just to pay these customers back. Another example is if that an employee in the business has decided to pass on information to another business or another person in another company, you have breached the law and the business could get prosecuted for this. #