In the United Kingdom, which law primarily governs the storage and use of personal data by organizations?

Introduction / Context:
Information technology professionals must be aware of legal responsibilities when handling personal data. In the United Kingdom, specific legislation governs how organizations collect, store, and use personal information about individuals. This question asks you to identify the main law that covers data protection obligations for organizations and data controllers.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The focus is on storage and use of personal data about identifiable individuals.
• We are considering United Kingdom law, not general international law.
• Several acts exist that cover different aspects of computer and information use.

Concept / Approach:
The Data Protection Act in the United Kingdom sets out principles for how personal data should be processed. These principles include fairness, lawfulness, transparency, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, and security. Organizations that collect and use personal data must comply with these principles, inform individuals about how their data will be used, and protect data against unauthorized access. Other laws, such as the Computer Misuse Act, deal with hacking and misuse of computer systems, and the Freedom of Information Act relates to public access to information held by public authorities, not to general data protection duties.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Focus on the phrase storage and use of data in the question, which clearly points to data protection and privacy.Step 2: Identify the Data Protection Act as the legislation that sets rules for processing personal data.Step 3: Recognize that the Computer Misuse Act is mainly about offenses such as unauthorized access or hacking.Step 4: Recall that the Freedom of Information Act governs public access to information from public bodies, not how companies store personal data internally.Step 5: The Official Secrets Act deals with protection of government secrets, not general personal data held by organizations.

Verification / Alternative check:
Examples help confirm this. When a company collects customer names, addresses, and payment details, it must follow data protection rules. Customers may have rights to access their data, correct it, or request its deletion, all of which are governed by data protection legislation. In contrast, if someone tries to hack into a system, that is a Computer Misuse Act issue. If a citizen requests information from a government department, that involves Freedom of Information rules. These real world distinctions confirm that the act governing storage and use of personal data is the Data Protection Act.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option B: Computer Misuse Act focuses on criminal misuse of computers, not lawful storage and processing of data.Option C: Freedom of Information Act is about public access to records held by public authorities, not general data protection.Option D: Official Secrets Act deals with the handling of classified government information, not everyday personal data in private organizations.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes mix up different information related laws and assume that any law mentioning computers automatically applies to data protection. It is important to associate each act with its main purpose. Data protection law is about the rights of individuals and duties of data controllers, while computer misuse law is about preventing unauthorized access and cybercrime.

Final Answer:
The correct answer is Data Protection Act.