Say No To POPI

POPI or the Protection Of Personal Information bill, is a new act which will probably come into effect early next year. What the POPI bill means is that you will not be able to phone or email someone, unless they have given prior consent. At the moment when you receive an email from a company promoting their business with specials and competitions, you can choose to read it, delete it or unsubscribe. However once POPI is signed into law, companies will no longer be allowed to contact you unless you have given prior consent, which means that we will no longer have the power over what emails we receive. Not only that, but you will have to be very careful what you write on Facebook or in your blogs, because if you put in any personal information about someone else once the bill has passed, e.g.. Cell no., race, gender, religion, etc..., this will now be considered illegal, with heavy penalties involved, as POPI makes it illegal to disclose another persons personal information without their written consent. Personally I would like to have the power over what e-mails I receive, not for some bill to decide what is allowed to be sent to me, I consider myself to be an adult and should be able to make my own decisions. POPI has been around since 2009 and its only been brought to my attention now, when they've almost got it finalised so I don't think the public as a whole know about this bill and I want everyone to know about it. Its not too late, if we act now. There is a conference happening in Joburg on the 6th November and some people concerned about POPI believe that this bill will be signed by the president before Christmas. Considering the billions that will be lost as result of this bill I am amazed at the lack of response from all the different companies. Please sign up and tell your friends about this bill. Lets all stop POPI together.