Tomorrow, 1 July 2021, is “POPIA Day”, as the sudden crop of salivating consultants and “experts” are calling it.  POPIA is South Africa’s

South Africa's data protection law has real-life consequences

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2021-06-30 13:30:02

Tomorrow, 1 July 2021, is “POPIA Day”, as the sudden crop of salivating consultants and “experts” are calling it.  POPIA is South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act. POPIA becomes fully effective on 1 July 2021.

I was very relieved and excited when, in that year, the South African Law Reform Commission published its Issue Paper: 24 – Privacy and Data Protection.

I was relieved because I had just completed an excellent course on telecommunications and information security.  My eyes were opened to the consequences of breaches of privacy and what happens when personal information falls into the wrong hands.

I learned that, during World War 2, when Germany invaded countries like the Netherlands or Belgium, the Nazis would seek out administrative offices, such as the local mayor’s office, in the towns and cities they occupied.

They would do this because the records that were held were often very detailed: names, ages, number of family members, religion.  

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