CONSUMERS irritated by unsolicited calls from direct marketers trying to sell cures for baldness, or too-good-to-be-true cellphone deals, or wow-your- lady libido enhancers, can look forward to some relief when the Consumer Protection Bill is signed into law. <\/p>\n
Most people don’t realise that by filling in their name and contact details at a security checkpoint, or a company reception desk, or when they register online that they are surrendering valuable information, information for which companies will pay good money . <\/p>\n
Janine Jefferies, legal adviser at Edcon, said: “There are list brokers who compile lists of people from various public sources of information. <\/p>\n
“The owner of that building or security company sometimes unscrupulously sells on your information. List brokers then on-sell them to companies. <\/p>\n
“These are valuable documents. If you are getting a good list, it costs a lot of money.” <\/p>\n
Unfortunately, once your information is in the public domain, there is nothing illegal about people using it: “There is nothing that says you cannot compile lists of names which were in the public domain.” <\/p>\n
Fortunately, Sections 11 and 12 of the Consumer Protection Bill specially protect consumers’ privacy. <\/p>\n
Section 11 states that every person’s right to privacy includes the right to refuse to accept, require another person to discontinue, or to pre-emptively block any approach or communication, if the approach or communication is primarily for the purpose of direct marketing. That means consumers will be able to opt out of receiving unwanted calls, junk mail and e-mails — free of charge. There is currently a similar register run by the Direct Marketing Association — www.dmasa.org<\/a> — where consumers are able to remove their details from mailing lists used by the association’s members for promotion purposes. <\/p>\n The bill is currently awaiting approval by the National Council of Provinces before it can be signed into law. <\/p>\n It was approved by the National Assembly on September 26.<\/p>\n