by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Protection of Personal Information Bill (POPI), which will probably be signed into law in the next few months, will have a significant impact on how marketers may obtain and handle customer information.
Elizabeth de Stadler, a senior associate at Esselaar Attorneys, will be speaking at Content 2013, the content marketing conference taking place on the 25th and 26th February 2013 at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town, on the impact of POPI on especially content marketers.
Her talk will cover what the implications and legal obligations are when it comes to the data content marketers collect, what security requirements are required to protect user information, what is required for consent and how the limitations of usage have changed. MarkLives asked her for some insight into the Protection of Personal Information Bill in advance of her talk at Content 2013.
Q: When will POPI come into effect and what timeline does it give content marketers to comply with regulations?
Elizabeth de Stadler: The Protection of Personal Information Bill has not been signed into law yet. This will probably happen in the first quarter of 2013. Even then businesses will be given a year to comply. This means that there is still time to reflect on the real implications of the Bill and implement solutions. It does not mean that you must ignore the Bill – it has very real implications and it will take time to become compliant.