{"id":530884,"date":"2021-10-20T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=530884"},"modified":"2021-10-20T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:00:47","slug":"updated-privacy-and-personal-information-rules-planned-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/530884\/updated-privacy-and-personal-information-rules-planned-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated privacy and personal information rules planned for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s Information Regulator has called for comments on an amendment to the regulations relating to the protection of personal information.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov.za\/inforeg\/legal\/20211012-InfoRegSA-InvtieToComment-RegulationsAmendment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft regulations<\/a><\/strong> set out the procedure to follow in certain circumstances contemplated in the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), including how:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A person may object to the processing of their personal information;<\/li>\n<li>A person\u00a0may request the correction, destruction, or deletion of their personal information;<\/li>\n<li>Businesses may request a person&#8217;s consent to process their personal information for unsolicited electronic direct marketing; and<\/li>\n<li>A person can submit a complaint to the Information Regulator.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below, legal firm Webber Wentzel outlined some of the key proposals and what they will mean for individuals and businesses.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Objecting to the processing of personal information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The draft regulations have introduced flexibility on how people can object to their personal data being processed, allowing them to do so &#8216;in any manner that may be expedient&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Organisations are required, under the draft regulations, to explicitly tell people about their right to object to the processing their personal information, in a manner that is distinct from other information communicated to those persons. This may require some businesses to revisit their privacy policies,&#8221; Webber Wentzel said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Requesting that personal information be corrected, destroyed, or deleted<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The draft regulations provide that if a person requests an organisation to correct, destroy or delete their personal information, the organisation must notify that person of the action taken in 14 days.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The draft regulations now include a definition that &#8220;days&#8221; are calendar days. Businesses would be required to ensure that they are able to properly consider and respond to these requests within 14 calendar days,&#8221; Webber Wentzel said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unsolicited electronic communications<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The draft regulations provide some latitude to organisations requesting a person&#8217;s consent to process their personal information for direct marketing through unsolicited electronic communication.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The current POPIA regulations require that written consent be given in a prescribed form attached to the existing regulations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, the draft regulations would permit an organisation to obtain consent using a form substantially similar to Form 4 or &#8216;in any manner that may be expedient&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Webber Wentzel said that this development would alleviate some of the administrative burdens for businesses in ensuring compliance with this consent requirement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Complaints to the Information Regulator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The draft regulations provide a straightforward procedure on how affected parties may submit complaints to the Information Regulator, with clarification on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Which parties may submit a complaint;<\/li>\n<li>The information which must be included in the complaint;<\/li>\n<li>Where and how to submit a complaint\u00a0 &#8211; including how to submit a complaint on behalf of another person<\/li>\n<li>How to submit a complaint without revealing one&#8217;s identity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Commentary by Peter Grealy, Karl Blom and Nozipho Mngomezulu of law firm Webber Wentzel.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/526924\/south-africa-needs-a-new-mxit-after-whatsapp-outage-says-communications-minister\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa needs a new Mxit after WhatsApp outage, says communications minister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s Information Regulator has called for comments on an amendment to the regulations relating to the protection of personal information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":276705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,9455],"class_list":["post-530884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-headline","tag-webber-wentzel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530884"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530900,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530884\/revisions\/530900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}