Adocate louis Nel discusses Codes of Conduct in his series on the Protection of Personal information Act
THE information regulator
(IR) may issue a code of
conduct (COC).
Such COC must, inter
alia, contain the eight
principles we have
discussed in previous
inserts and how they are
to be applied.
The COC may be issued
of his own accord or upon
request – the latter is
allowed in the case of a
body that is ‘sufficiently
representative of class
of bodies, industry or
profession. This is thus an
ideal opportunity for bodies
in the travel and tourism
industry such as Asata,
EXSA, Saaci, SATSA,
Site and others to selfregulate
as opposed
to being regulated and
prescribed to.
Either way it will
be advertised in the
Government Gazette and call
for submissions.
Once issued it will be
available for perusal (free)
and/or purchase (price to
be paid) at the offices of the
IPR and on its website.
The COC may (but more
than likely will) contain
provisions to deal with
complaints about breaches
of the COC and (may) will
also deal with spam (see
our next insert).
Likewise the IPR may issue
guidelines for organisations
(bodies) to draft their own
COC and will keep a register
of such ‘approved COC’.
What businesses should
do asap – it may well be
a good idea to review any
current COC a business or
association may have and
to incorporate the above
eight principles PLUS spam
issues (see our next insert)
