Why Popia's promise appears to fall flat

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

Journalist
Staff member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
6,544
Reaction score
4,845
Why Popia's promise appears to fall flat

While the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) has been in effect for nearly two years, it has seemingly done little to curb the scourge of telemarketing or SMS spam.

After coming into effect on 1 June 2021, Popia imposed numerous strict requirements on businesses regarding acquiring, storing, securing, and sharing the personal information of customers or potential customers.
 
I would say telemarketers and businesses are the biggest culprits and just ignore it. Note the comments in this thread which effectively got shut down by what can only be vested interests using convoluted arguments:

The POPIA Contravention Name and Shame Thread

Name and shame anyone that has sent you a message by any means to your phone in contravention of POPIA since 01 July. Checkers IWYZE
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
If POPI is an Act like the CPA is, both should allow the complainant to lay a charge at a police station. Neither allows that. Complaining is just a major hassle if the public can't lay a charge.
 
Cosmik Debris said:
If POPI is an Act like the CPA is, both should allow the complainant to lay a charge at a police station. Neither allows that. Complaining is just a major hassle if the public can't lay a charge.
Click to expand...
Popi was written by lawyers for lawyers
 
The bad news is that telemarketers are exempt from POPIA.

I don't know why that is even in the headline, it's pretty widely known.

You can ask people not to call you anymore, but your data is spread so wide and far it's pointless (Yes, the data thing violates POPIA, but the call centres don't care). Here is a part of the explanation: https://www.golegal.co.za/telemarketers-permission-popia/
The other reason I remember hearing is that at the time of drafting POPIA, call centres were viewed as a sort of job creation miracle and were exempted for this reason.
 
kolakidd said:
The bad news is that telemarketers are exempt from POPIA.

I don't know why that is even in the headline, it's pretty widely known.

You can ask people not to call you anymore, but your data is spread so wide and far it's pointless (Yes, the data thing violates POPIA, but the call centres don't care). Here is a part of the explanation: https://www.golegal.co.za/telemarketers-permission-popia/
The other reason I remember hearing is that at the time of drafting POPIA, call centres were viewed as a sort of job creation miracle and were exempted for this reason.
Click to expand...
Haha not a single insurer is going to stop calling you if you ask them not to do so.
 
I keep telling myself that the person on the other end is just doing a job and that I should be polite.

Those days are gone.
 
Bliksis said:
I keep telling myself that the person on the other end is just doing a job and that I should be polite.

Those days are gone.
Click to expand...
Those days disappeared years ago...

I feel for the guys on the other end of the phone but at the same time, they can all fsck off I don't want whatever horseshyte they're trying to sell me.
 
kolakidd said:
The bad news is that telemarketers are exempt from POPIA.

I don't know why that is even in the headline, it's pretty widely known.

You can ask people not to call you anymore, but your data is spread so wide and far it's pointless (Yes, the data thing violates POPIA, but the call centres don't care). Here is a part of the explanation: https://www.golegal.co.za/telemarketers-permission-popia/
The other reason I remember hearing is that at the time of drafting POPIA, call centres were viewed as a sort of job creation miracle and were exempted for this reason.
Click to expand...

Written by Roy Bregman:

Roy Bregman​

Roy Bregman is an accredited divorce mediator and specialises in: - Drafting of antenuptial and postnuptial contracts; - Winding up of deceased estates; - Arbitration, mediation and alternative dispute resolution;...

A divorce mediator that tells me:

“Electronic communication” is something transmitted over electronic communications networks, stored in the network or the recipient’s equipment (such as a text, a voice, a sound, or an image).

The section does not explicitly include phone marketing in its definition of unsolicited electronic communication. A telephone is not an electronic communications device.

I dare him to use a telephone without the electronic components in it. He would need to resort to this:

Tin-Can-Telephone-Does-Your-AMS-Need-to-Sync-With-Your-Financial-Software.png
 
Charge officials for dereliction of duty and fire them immediately. Doesn't It reek of incompetence and possibly corruption?
 
kolakidd said:
The bad news is that telemarketers are exempt from POPIA.

I don't know why that is even in the headline, it's pretty widely known.

You can ask people not to call you anymore, but your data is spread so wide and far it's pointless (Yes, the data thing violates POPIA, but the call centres don't care). Here is a part of the explanation: https://www.golegal.co.za/telemarketers-permission-popia/
The other reason I remember hearing is that at the time of drafting POPIA, call centres were viewed as a sort of job creation miracle and were exempted for this reason.
Click to expand...

For many, a call center job is the door way to the IT work world.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X