Don’t be deceived by the podium finish. With a score of 3.04 out of five, South Africa may rank third on the list of countries actively protecting the privacy of citizens, but when this figure classifies South Africa as a country with “some safeguards but weakened protections,” it’s clear that the privacy bar isn’t set very high.
The highest score was only 0.16 better than South Africa, with first place going to Ireland at 3.2, classifying it as a country with “adequate safeguards in place”. France, Portugal, Denmark at Norway were the only other countries to meet these standards. Theoretically speaking, South Africa has statutory protection and a regulatory body tasked with enforcing privacy rights; however, neither is fully operational.South Africa is in the process of introducing an information regulator and the Protection of Personal Information Act which will help to further enforce privacy rights. But these aren’t fully in place, it does create some grey areas,” the study read.
While there are no official figures, it is estimated that cybercrime is costing South Africans billions of rand.The fact that our law has been so tragically delayed – and it is tragic for victims of cybercrime – has contributed significantly to the incidence of cybercrime,” said Heyink.Most times, these victims are older people or the less affluent in our society, and they simply cannot recover from these financial setbacks.