Johannesburg, 31 Mar 2014
South Africa's first online information and privacy compliance seal provider, InfoSeal, was launched on 4 March 2014, as a subsidiary of Infosure, with its head office in Midrand, Gauteng and a branch in Cape Town.
Introduction of the Infoseal solution to South Africa was two-fold says CEO Mr Francis Cronj'e. Firstly this was driven by the need to align South Africa with similar information and privacy compliance seals offered in the US and UK. Secondly, but more importantly, to continue and improve online governance practices adopted by most of the country's corporate citizens.
The existence of various legislative, regulatory and statutory requirements locally and globally amplifies this solution as an appropriate offering to the South African market. Cronj'e is confident that consumer assurance can be improved through the provision of a service that truly provides a trusted online experience. The signing in of the Protection of Personal Information Act by President Jacob Zuma has also set the stage for South Africa to meet and exceed global online trust experience.
Continuous proliferation in company trust levels being diminished on a daily basis due to unauthorised use, transfer and dissemination of personal information, creates ongoing scepticism when information is transferred electronically. The South African consumer has become even more weary and cautious when transacting through company Web sites alike. This sentiment is further exacerbated in the case of trans-border information flow, and in particular, when foreign consumers are required to engage with and transact with local organisations for their business endeavours.
Cronj'e also highlighted that through the professional collaboration of legal, risk, governance and compliance experts, Infoseal have developed the InfoSeal Website Compliance Program (IWCP). This was formulated taking into consideration various local and international privacy regulations, standards, codes of conduct and best practice. In addition to website assurance, InfoSeal has also embarked on a Cloud Compliance Program (ICCP), which embodies a commitment by cloud service providers to comply with privacy-friendly, reliable, highly interoperable, secure and energy-efficient cloud services. The ICCP places emphasis on the fact that reliability, security and protection of data is needed for client / consumer confidence and competitiveness.
The Infoseal product was conceptualised to address customer's online concerns within one product offering, tailored specifically for the South African environment and to achieve the following objectives:
* To provide Web site users with assurance that they are interacting with a Web site that is legitimate and complies with the IWCP.
* Provides assurance that personal information being processed via the certified Web site is conducted lawfully, in a way that does not infringe on a user's privacy and is in accordance with the certified Web site's privacy notice and terms and conditions.
Having successfully satisfied the requirements of the assessment as per the IWCP, the organisation is provided with the Information and Privacy Seal to display on their Web site, demonstrating their commitment to protecting both the organisation and its customers. The Information and Privacy Seal then becomes a visible expression of the organisation's commitment to information and privacy management which is aligned to the Infoseal statement of intent: "Assuring a trusted online experience".
All Web sites and Web site owners are required to be good custodians of all personal information collected, processed and disseminated. Accordingly, when a Web site user feels that his, her or its rights concerning personal information has been infringed on an Infoseal certified Web site, the complainant is welcome to lodge a complaint against the relevant website owner via the InfoSeal Online Dispute Resolution (IODR) platform.
By "assuring a trusted online experience," Cronje envisions the InfoSeal brand and solution to be the "de-facto" standard for online information and privacy compliance in South Africa. For more information about InfoSeal, click here.
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