TOBY SHAPSHAK: Why privacy matters
Failure to implement privacy act means perpetrators of SA’s largest data leak will go unpunished
How could a property company put an estimated 60m South Africans’ personal information into an insecure database file and on an insecure Web server that has now been linked to the biggest data breach in SA history? How did they manage to collate so much sensitive data about us without our permission? And how is it that they might get off scot-free for exposing potentially all of us to identity theft because legislation hasn’t yet been properly implemented?"Under existing common law, there are implications for companies that intentionally or negligently disseminate private information, but the process is arduous and the remedies are not significant," says astute media law expert Dario Milo from Webber Wentzel. A maximum fine of R10m could have been imposed if Popi had been properly enacted but the regulatory body, the Information Regulator, was only established this year, despite the act being enacted four years ago. After the story broke I was called by an astonished SA radio report...
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