{"id":83445,"date":"2013-08-11T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=83445"},"modified":"2013-08-11T11:34:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T09:34:08","slug":"no-spam-list-for-sa-rendered-useless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/83445-no-spam-list-for-sa-rendered-useless.html","title":{"rendered":"No-spam list for SA rendered useless?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The national register to opt out of direct marketing in South Africa will be made obsolete before it has even been implemented, Lance Michalson<\/a> from Michalsons Attorneys<\/a> recently explained in an article on the firm\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is because the Protection of Personal Information Bill (POPI) will switch South Africa from an \u201copt-out\u201d approach to spam, to \u201copt-in\u201d, Michalson said.<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA), consumers are allowed to pre-emptively block any direct marketing by registering with a national opt-out list.<\/p>\n

Such a national register was never implemented, Michalson said.<\/p>\n

\"Lance

Lance Michalson<\/p><\/div>\n

This is despite the fact that there were at least two opt-out registries for the National Consumer Commission to choose between; one by TrustFabric, the other by the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under POPI this will all be rendered moot, as the Bill adopts a \u201csoft opt-in\u201d approach to spam.<\/p>\n

Tobias Schonwetter<\/a>, director of UCT\u2019s intellectual property unit in the Faculty of Law, previously told MyBroadband that POPI requires you to explicitly opt in to direct marketing, with the following exception:<\/p>\n