Data Privacy
The following links lead to information on this draft legislation
The Direct Marketing Association of South Africa
The Direct Marketing Association of South Africa was founded to encourage and develop the highest standards of direct marketing in South Africa and is representative of all direct marketers, who are primarily in the financial, retail, advertising, mail order, contact centre, and electronic commerce industries. The Association has developed a code of conduct, which encompasses all direct media - mail, telephone, broadcast, print, fax, e-mail, SMS and the web.
Legislation
Data Privacy News
Protection of Personal Information Bill
2010-06-21
Businesses will have to dramatically rethink their marketing and communication strategies once the Protection of Personal Information (PPI) Bill is enacted into law.
Contact centres must become PPI-ready now
2010-06-07
Contact centres should already start preparing their staff and technology for the imminent PPI legislation.
Industry Groups Furious at B2B Do Not Call Register Federal Budget Inclusion
2009-05-19
Australia's Federal Government Budget handed down this week has taken a direct and potentially detrimental strike at Australia's contact centre industry.
The end of outbound call centres?
2008-09-11
The contact centre industry needs to face up to the use and misuse of consumer data. With new legislation imminent, the very existence of the outbound telemarketing sector is in real danger. Andy Quinan looks at the lie of the land.
Call centres brace for new credit act
2007-05-25
The New Privacy Legislation - A catastrophe or just survival or maybe a new beginning?
2006-10-31
An update from the DMA on the draft legislation, what submissions have been made by the direct marketing industry and what can be expected in the next draft of the Bill, which is due sometime in November.
The DMA and new Privacy Legislation - Action to improve the PPI and Consumer Protection Bills
2006-06-15
Two new draft pieces of legislation have recently been presented to the public for comment prior to them being presented to Parliament and gazetted into law. These are the Protection of Personal Information Bill (PPI) from the Department of Justice and the new Consumer Protection Bill (CPB) from the Department of Trade and Industry. Both bills will have a major impact on the Direct Marketing industry.
A new threat to our industry has emerged in the form of The Consumer Protection Bill
2006-05-10
The Consumer Protection Bill has been drafted by the Dept of Trade & Industry. There is a great deal at stake with this new piece of legislation, which replaces seven other acts. Ninety percent of the proposed new bill is a very good draft and will be of great benefit to consumers. There are however some very heavy restrictions placed on list owners and owners of customer databases, which will have a very negative impact on outsource contact centres who do telemarketing work, particularly for the financial services sector. Three particular sections directly affect telemarketing - Section 7 restricts the ability to select prospect data based on demographic criteria (the basis of good direct marketing) because it might be discriminatory. Section 13 rules that consumers cannot be contacted for marketing purposes without express written permission.
Outbound telemarketers beware!
2006-02-20
We are not sure that our industry is aware of the impact of the coming Protection of Personal Information Bill. Rumour has it that the contact centre industry is not even making a submission to the SA Law Commission, and the deadline is 28 February. Submissions are being made by the Direct Marketing Association and big corporate players like Sanlam and Telkom. The draft bill will stop outbound telemarketers from using lists consisting of people who have not given their consent to be contacted. That means that the main source of prospects for outbound retail, financial services and cellular telemarketing will be cut off. Suddenly there will be nobody to call! Are you ready for the big changes to come?
Warning Bells - The Approaching Storm - Huge Job Losses for Call Centre Industry?
2005-11-20
Although extremely difficult to estimate with any reasonable degree of accuracy, we believe that approximately 25,000 South African call centre jobs are directly related to outbound telesales. These jobs are under serious threat!
