The information regulator plans to start cracking down on organizations that have engaged in direct marketing in violation of the POPI Act.
- The information regulator is expected to begin cracking down on entities that violate direct marketing rules this week.
- This call may violate privacy laws depending on the conditions.
- South Africa has historically been a global hotspot for spam calls.
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The Information Regulatory Authority (IR) is cracking down on public and private organizations in South Africa for suspected breaches of direct marketing regulations, including inappropriate marketing calls.
This is according to Nomzamo Zondi, senior manager of communications and media at the Information Regulatory Authority, who said the Information Regulatory Authority would issue an initial enforcement notice to a South African entity deemed to have breached personal protection provisions. He said that he plans to issue a. Information Act (POPIA).
“We will be issuing our first enforcement notice this week. This enforcement notice is the result of an investigation into complaints regarding direct marketing,” Zondi told News24.
According to an article published in SowetanLive, IR plans to issue a total of 14 enforcement notices to both public and private institutions.
IR is the agency responsible for enforcing the provisions of POPIA. Enforcement notices can be issued requiring organizations to improve their compliance with POPIA, and fines can also be imposed if these measures are not met within a specified period.
The group issued its first enforcement notice in May last year and has been conducting inspections ever since.
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IR is now zeroing in on direct marketing violations.
According to a 2021 report by Truecaller, a platform that alerts you to potential spam calls, South Africa has the ninth-highest number of average monthly spam calls per user in the world, at more than 10 per month.
Marketing calls and other types of direct marketing such as email and SMS messages are allowed under certain conditions, but must follow rules to be POPIA compliant.
Mr. Zondi said that if a company sends direct marketing information without the data subject's consent or contacts the data subject after the data subject has requested removal from the company's database, it will violate the Direct Marketing Regulation. I explained that it would be.
“POPIA requires compliance with the conditions for lawful processing of personal information. This is what IR insists on when it comes to direct marketing calls,” Zondi said.
Mr Zondi said the enforcement notice issued this week followed a complaint to IR which was investigated.
He said it was too early to say at this stage which entities would be issued with enforcement notices.