The term “Data Protection Act” usually refers to UK laws, and there have been several of them at different times.

  • The first UK Data Protection Act was passed in 1984.
  • It was then replaced by the Data Protection Act 1998 , which received Royal Assent and was enacted in 1998.
  • Today, the main law is the Data Protection Act 2018 , which came into force in 2018 as the UK’s implementation of GDPR.

So if someone asks “when was the Data Protection Act made?” without specifying which one, they could mean 1984, 1998, or 2018, with 2018 being the current main Act.