The long-awaited Protection of Personal Information (PPI) Bill is now set to be drafted for the seventh time before being presented to the full portfolio committee.
The Justice and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee's technical sub-committee on the Protection of Personal Information Bill recently held its final meeting to look at the latest changes.
SA's Privacy Bill - which is not the same as the Protection of State Information Act - aims to protect personal information processed by public and private bodies.
The PPI Bill should cut down on spam as it sets down strict parameters around how information can be collected and used. The latest draft notes that data subjects can object to processing of their information, and must be told when data is being collected.
Pieter Streicher, MD of BulkSMS.com, says the latest version means it will not be lawful for a supplier to refuse to do business with a consumer who objects to providing personal information that is not strictly necessary for the completion of the transaction.
The PPI Bill states that end-users must also be informed when information has been “accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person” and can ask for access to all their personal information. In addition, where necessary, people can request for information to be destroyed.
According to the working draft, people can also refuse the processing of their personal information “for the purpose of direct marketing by means of unsolicited electronic communications”.
Areas of special concern in the clause-by-clause briefing and discussion by committee members included definitions - in particular, of personal information, blocking and privacy, and child; the role of the regulator; literary and artistic expression; proactive regulation of data privacy; the rights of the data subject; the processing of information on children; notification of the data subject of any breach of data protection; ownership of information; DNA; as well as the regulator's power to grant authorisation to a responsible party to process information.
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