WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE POPI ACT AND THIS SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP
Hi Everyone, as you know the POPI act goes into effect in South Africa on 1 July 2021. As far as this Social Media group is concerned your usage of the group is covered by the Terms of Service agreement in place between you and the creators of this App or Platform. You have a contractual agreement in place with them as long as you are using their services. But there are certain areas that are not covered by the Terms of Service in regard to POPI. So please note the following:
1) I as an Admin of this group do not store, share or sell any of your private information. I have no need to do that and I have no desire to do that. So you do not need to worry about that happening from my side. I do not create any lists or databases. As far as this Social Media group is concerned I am also a USER and I am also bound by the Terms of Service already in place.
2) But at the same I cannot prevent other people from handling your private information that is visible to the public. It is important that you understand that doing so (scraping people's information) is now illegal in terms of the POPI act, and you should get people's permission before saving or storing their information. I am not responsible for your compliance to the POPI act and I am not responsible for what other people may do with your info.
3) I may save you as a contact on my phone if I am in frequent contact with you and I am assuming that you are OK with this by being a part of the group. This is only for me to know who you are when dealing with you and again this information is not shared any further or sent onto any other party. You should know that by being part of a Social Media Group (WhatsApp or Telegram, etc.) That your number may be visible to other people and they may save you as a contact on their phone. If you do not want this to happen you should take steps to secure your own data from being publicly visible.
4) Your prior behaviour may create an impression of permission granted or "soft opt-in". This means that by being a member of this group for a certain number of years you are fine with your Cellphone Number and Name being visible. If you do not want that, then you should leave this social media group so that people cannot see your info.
5) You should not forward or share any info you obtain from these groups about people's private information without their express permission. This includes all forms of personally identifiable information including photographs, addresses and contact information. From now on you MUST get their permission before sharing their private info or doing anything with it. Do NOT just assume.
6) You may not privately contact anybody else on this group with the intention or advertise to them or to market yourself or your goods to them without first obtaining their permission to do so. If you are found to be doing this you will be banned and may face prosecution for any violations of privacy laws.
7) If you are fine with people seeing your name and number then you may stay on this group and by doing so we will assume that you are in agreement with this. But if you refuse and you do not want people to see your info, then you should leave the group immediately.
8) If you feel that your info is being mishandled you should notify the Admins of this group immediately, and you may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.
You can get more information here -
https://popia.co.za/
Thanks for your time and understanding.
The Admins of the Social Media Group.
Sign up with Google
