{"id":137456,"date":"2019-05-17T18:47:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T16:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/south-africans-dont-trust-companies-to-protect-their-data-privacy-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2019-05-17T18:47:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T16:47:39","slug":"south-africans-dont-trust-companies-to-protect-their-data-privacy-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-africans-dont-trust-companies-to-protect-their-data-privacy-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africans don’t trust companies to protect their data privacy | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africans don’t trust companies to protect their data privacy<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Companies aren't living up to their privacy policies' promises.<\/span> mindscanner\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Consumers expect that organisations will respect their privacy. For instance, when you buy something online, you take it for granted that your bank details will be kept secure. Or if you provide your identity number at a store, you trust that this will be kept confidential.<\/p>\n

But the reality in South Africa is very different. In 2017, a massive data breach saw tens of millions of South Africans\u2019 personal information leaked. A real estate company using an open web server was responsible. There have been other instances also involving large companies.<\/p>\n

There are legislative measures in place to protect people\u2019s data, among them the Protection of Personal Information Act. An Information Regulator has been established with the objective of protecting citizens\u2019 personal data. It is also responsible for monitoring and enforcing organisations\u2019 compliance of all organisations with the requirements of the Act once it comes into effect.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, organisations remain accountable for implementing measures in line with the Act to protect their customer data. Public and private organisations are legally obliged to implement minimum requirements to protect consumer data when they process it. <\/p>\n

But research conducted at the University of South Africa has found there\u2019s a huge disconnect between the privacy that consumers expect and are legally entitled to, and what organisations are doing to meet their obligations.<\/p>\n

And a survey we conducted as part of the research found that consumers are becoming increasingly disenchanted with South African organisations when it comes to issues of privacy and data protection. <\/p>\n

These issues can be addressed in several ways. Organisations must start complying with the Protection of Personal Information Act. This will bring South Africa in line with more than 120 countries that have already enacted data privacy legislation. <\/p>\n

Organisations can also adopt and adapt guidelines issued by Information Regulators elsewhere in the world, and can study best practice from other jurisdictions. It could also help organisations if the Information Regulator in South Africa issued guidelines to implement the Act. It would also be useful to set up ways of holding organisations to account. Consumers need to know where to report companies that don\u2019t protect their data.<\/p>\n

Deep mistrust<\/h2>\n

Our survey found that consumers\u2019 were very concerned about the protection of their data. As much as 64% of the participants know someone personally whose personal data has been misused. Unwanted marketing was common, suggesting that contact information which was meant to be kept private, had been shared with others.<\/p>\n

Of the 1007 people who responded to our survey across South Africa\u2019s nine provinces, 83% were concerned about the protection of their data. About 94% were especially worried about safeguarding their identity; 92% expressed concerns about the security of their financial data, and 80% about their health-related data. These concerns were higher (79%) for online transactions when compared to face-to-face transactions (57%).<\/p>\n

Consumers also weren\u2019t sure what to do if their privacy had been violated. Only 37% felt they knew where they have to submit a complaint in a violation.<\/p>\n

Overall, the survey suggested that South African consumers weren\u2019t confident that organisations always used their information lawfully and for the agreed purposes. The survey outlined all of the act\u2019s major conditions \u2013 and most respondents felt companies weren\u2019t meeting any of these. This, of course, affects consumer trust and confidence.<\/p>\n

It has bigger implications, too. If a private or public company is domiciled in South Africa, it must comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act. If it processes the data of citizens in another jurisdiction, like the European Union (EU), it must also comply with the EU\u2019s regulations for the processing of personal information.<\/p>\n

But, given that consumers feel that so many South African companies seem not to be complying with local data regulations, it\u2019s unlikely they are operating in line with global data rules such as the EU\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation. This may affect companies\u2019 ability to engage in international trade.<\/p>\n

Interventions<\/h2>\n

Organisations must take heed of their consumers\u2019 privacy concerns, and ensure the methods they use to process and store data are in line with both the law and customers\u2019 expectations. Compliance plans would be useful as compiled by organisations based on international best practice.<\/p>\n

It is also obvious from the survey that consumers don\u2019t know who to complain to when their privacy has been violated. Consumers may also not know what the Act entails and what their rights are as only 44% indicated that they have good knowledge about it. The Information Regulator and other consumer organisations should consider awareness and education campaigns to address these gaps. <\/p>\n

Consumers indicated that their preference for receiving more information about their privacy rights are mainly the Internet followed by organisations to whom they give their data, as well as the government and banking institutions.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

This work is based on research supported wholly by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant number: 105735)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans don’t trust companies to protect their data privacy: Companies aren't living up to their privacy policies' promises. mindscanner\/Shutterstock Consumers expect that organisations will respect their privacy. For instance, when you buy something online, you take it for granted that your bank details will be kept secure. Or if you provide your identity number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4728,8328,8890,4732,5021,20645,6623,3576,2434,4416],"class_list":{"0":"post-137456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africans","8":"tag-companies","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-data","11":"tag-dont","12":"tag-privacy","13":"tag-protect","14":"tag-south","15":"tag-their","16":"tag-trust","17":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}