Call to familiarise with new data protection law
TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) says the public should familiarise themselves with the critical Data Protection Act whose objective is to promote the right to human dignity and freedom of expression.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Data Protection Act (Chapter 11:12) into law recently.
The objective of the Act is to increase data protection in order to build confidence and trust in the secure use of information and communication technologies by data controllers , their representatives and data subjects.
“While we were highlighting the benefits of the Data Protection Act and the benefits that have been put in place, there is need for individuals to be very creative in promoting the Data Protection Act . This includes that we do not share our sensitive data and personal information on public platforms as well as other online platforms,” MISA Zimbabwe’s legal and ICT policy officer, Nompilo Simanje, told a workshop on the Data Protection Act held in Bulawayo last week.
Simanje urged stakeholders and citizens to familiarize themselves with the data protection act.
“We have noted so many people that share their personal information like home addresses. We felt taking pre-emptive measures to ensure that data should only be accessed by people that are intended to receive,” she said.
Matabeleland Institute For Human Rights coordinator Khumbulani Maphosa said there are a number of residents in constituencies that are finding themselves at loggerheads with the law “because they commit crimes from what they know as their ordinary life”.
“We are running a lot of community WhatsApp groups where we run human rights information centres. These centres are done virtually but are also in the communities. It is through those platforms that we disseminate information,” Maphosa said.
