BARRY STREEK, Johannesburg | Thursday 12.15pm.
SOUTH Africa needs more precise legislation to protect consumer privacy, especially in electronic commerce (e-commerce), Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said on Thursday.
Internet users “must have a right of access to whatever information a company may hold on them, and the means to correct or modify [or remove] any information that is faulty, or that the consumer does not wish the database owner to retain,” she said at the launch of a discussion paper on electronic commerce policy in Johannesburg.
Investigations into legislative and policy initiatives concerning consumer protection in the digital environment, data security, privacy and the like, are just beginning in South Africa, she said.
“Some current consumer protection legislation and law enforcement issues may need to be revisited to ensure that a consumer or contracting party may enjoy at least the same measure of protection he or she would have enjoyed in commercial commerce,” Matsepe-Casaburri said.
The minister noted that concerns over individual privacy are on the rise. “The technology of the Internet has made it increasingly easy to obtained detailed, personal information about users, without their knowledge or consent. Of particular sensitivity is information in three categories: medical, financial and child-related,” she said.
Matsepe-Casabburri added: “Lacking an established tradition of standard consumer protection protection laws or enforcement agencies even in conventional commerce, South Africa faces a difficult job of establishing such rules with respect to this new technological environment.” She also said it might be necessary to consider new types of taxation as well as new ways of monitoring and reporting business transactions, and greater international co-ordination of tax policies may be required.