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Privacy law gets Cabinet nod

Paul Vecchiatto
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent
Cape Town, 14 Aug 2009

Cabinet has approved the Protection of Personal Information Bill to go before Parliament.

The draft law has been nine years in the making and will have a profound impact on business, lawyers say.

Yesterday, Cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko said the Bill was drafted by the South African Law Commission and seeks to protect the constitutional right to privacy as far as processing of personal information is concerned.

“The right to privacy should be balanced against other rights, such as the right of access to information,” he said during the press conference.

The SA Law Commission has been drafting the Bill since 2000 and issued the first discussion paper in 2003.

Lance Michalson, of Michalsons Attorneys, says this length of time was due to the initial discussion paper drawing more than 5 000 responses that had to be collated and examined.

“Then we had the general elections and the appointment of the new [justice] minister who had to familiarise himself with the Bill,” he says.

Another e-lawyer, Mike Silber, says the advent of the 2010 World Soccer Cup has also played a role in suddenly emphasising the urgent need for such a law.

“The prospect of thousands of visitors coming to the country [means] their personal information needs to be protected, and this includes the exchange of travel information and accommodation,” he says.

Interesting interaction

Dominic Cull, legal representative for the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), says: “It will be interesting to see how the privacy Bill interacts with other laws, such as the Promotion of Access to Information Act and the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act.”

Cull says ISPA hopes this draft law will adequately deal with the whole issue of spam, which is not catered for properly in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

Michalson says the key aspect of the privacy law will be the adequate funding and staffing of the Information Commission, which will be set up to guide companies on what will be considered as private information.

“This law will have a profound effect on how all companies classify information, whether it is personal or not, how they will deal with the information in terms of security, and how they will notify people when there is a breach of security,” he says.

The Bill will now go before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, where public hearings will be held, and then to the National Council of Provinces. Thereafter, it will be approved by the National Assembly and then signed into the statute books by the president.

“At best, we can expect this to become law by the end of the first quarter of 2010,” Michalson says.

Related stories:
Industry safe from data Bill
Data privacy Bill in suspended animation

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