On the road to property ownership: Protection of personal information act

Personal information is a sensitive topic, especially when you're sharing it online. Individuals sometimes freely share it with online networks or on social media profiles but are not aware of how it's being used. Being involved with new developments and property launches, it is common for these new developments to create a registration page and request your information.

The Protection of Personal Information Act, commonly known as the POPI Act has been created to maintain the flow, use, and regulation of information like your email address, contact number and other personal details collected online about you. The POPI Act will decide what is done, how its processed, stored and shared, who receives your information and why it's being processed or shared. This act has been signed into law in November 2013, but companies will have until the 30^th of June 2021 to ready themselves and start complying with the Act.

To ensure that the Act is carried out according to regulations and is complied with, a member of the business will need to be appointed as an information officer. This role will oversee the framework that controls information flow and other regulations focused on by the Act. As you can see, your information is gold and should be treated like it.

So, what does this mean for the real estate industry? Businesses will have to comply with the regulations set out by the government in the same way by ensuring that they do not use clients and potential client's information unlawfully. If you do not willingly share your information and agree to be contacted or provided with material, it will be against the law to do so.

As it stands, Devmco Realty has and always will treat your personal information as confidential and not use your details for anything other than what you signed up for. With this Act ensuring all companies comply, you will have further protection with all the online activities you engage with.