Faizel Patel – 02/07/2021
As people battle with targeted marking and unwanted sharing of personal information, there is relief that the Protection of Personal information Act (POPI) has arrived just in time.
The Popi act came into effect act on Thursday.
Popi is aimed at the protection of personal information processed by public and private bodies and seeks to balance the right to privacy against other rights, such as access to information.
Head of Technology and Privacy Law team at Herbert Smith Freehills Rohan Isaacs told Radio Islam the implementation of POPI is a good move but it also has a lot of implications for companies.
“We are all constantly bombarded with requests from direct marketers to buy insurance, or cellphones or airtime or whatever the case is. The act actually deals with direct marketing and what it really says is if you are an existing direct marketing customer from a direct marketer, they’ve go to give you the opportunities to ‘opt out’ if you don’t want to be bombarded by these sort of calls. You now have a legal mechanism to stop that.”
Organizations will have 12 months from 1 July to become compliant failing which, fines and penalties will apply depending on the offence, with a maximum of 10 years in prison or a R10 million fine.
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