{"id":546985,"date":"2005-10-10T12:48:24","date_gmt":"2005-10-10T12:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/546985-sa-eavesdropping-law-activated.html"},"modified":"2005-10-10T12:48:24","modified_gmt":"2005-10-10T12:48:24","slug":"sa-eavesdropping-law-activated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/546985-sa-eavesdropping-law-activated.html","title":{"rendered":"SA eavesdropping law activated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regulation according to the Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Act 70 of 2002 (bar sections 40 which deals with SIM-card vendors obtaining purchasers\u2019 details prior to selling the product, and 62, which repeals the previous act) started on September 30, according to the October 5 edition of the government gazette. Section 40 only comes into effect on November 30. <\/p>\n

The act states: \u201cno person may intentionally intercept or attempt to intercept\u2026 any communication (either direct \u2013 such as face-to-face meetings \u2013 or indirect \u2013 through the transfer of information via a telecommunications system) in the course of its occurrence or transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those caught intercepting communication unlawfully could face a fine of up to R2m or 10 years\u2019 imprisonment. <\/font><\/p>\n

Speaking on Moneyweb Radio, Lance Michalson of Cape Town-based Michalson Attorneys, says the law is aimed at protecting individuals\u2019 constitutional right to privacy: \u201cThat right is clearly infringed when you monitor their e-mail, in circumstances [where you] don\u2019t have their permission. So what the monitoring act seeks to do is to allow one to monitor e-mails at work, if certain processes have been put in place to make it lawful under the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

This creates a dilemma for employers, who often use e-mail as a source of evidence in disciplinary enquiries: \u201c[Companies must] come to grips with the legislation, primarily because it places everything at the foot of what they call a system controller. A system controller is the CEO of a company, or the managing director if there isn\u2019t one. Now clearly the CEO and the MD don\u2019t have the time or the expertise to do the monitoring. So there are going to have to be proper delegations in place in the IT department, and the IT department is going to have to monitor in accordance with the requirements of the act, or else it\u2019s the CEO who could end up getting fined or going to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michalson says that while some describe the legislation as draconian, it is in line with international developments: \u201cIt\u2019s a problem that one encounters throughout the world, and one ultimately has to try and find a balance between an individual\u2019s right to privacy and the right of the company to protect its business interests. The drafters have done quite a good job of getting that balance right. One can\u2019t monitor with impunity. In a lot of instances one has to get an order from a judge, or one gets written consent of the people concerned. So there\u2019s a lot of leeway for people to get on with business, but at the same time for employees not to have their rights to privacy infringed.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0 <\/font>http:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2002 law outlining instances where communication like e-mail correspondence and telephone conversations can be legally intercepted in South Africa was given the green light last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}