In Firstrand Bank Ltd t/a Wesbank v Leon Gregory Govender, Wesbank successfully sued its client for the breach of an electronic contract. Who should care about this judgment and why? Anyone who uses and enters into electronic contracts. What could [...]
RICA stands for the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act 70 of 2002 and finally came into effect on 30 September 2005. RICA is the piece of South African legislation that governs the interception or [...]
The monitoring of communications must be done lawfully. For example, employers often monitor employee communications (for example, email, websites visited and telephone calls made) in order to gather the evidence required to dismiss an employee fairly. Companies sometimes monitor [...]
Do you want to record a conversation without someone's consent? Do you wonder whether it's lawful to do so? While different jurisdictions will give you different answers, you might be surprised to find out that - in many cases - recording without consent is legal. This [...]
The Microsoft Ireland case considered whether the US government could compel Microsoft to give it access to Hotmail emails it holds on its server in Ireland. Could a US Government search warrant compel Microsoft to retrieve emails it holds on [...]
The United Nations Human Right Committee is concerned that the South African Government is unlawfully surveilling, intercepting and monitoring the private communications (like emails, SMSs, and phone calls) of its citizens on a mass scale. The committee is concerned that the National Communications Centre [...]
Facebook privacy has become a major issue in the workplace. Facebook has many benefits and many employees use it in the workplace. It is not just a social tool, and for many employees it is crucial to their work. But [...]
Gmail privacy has become an ever increasing issue and topic of conversation. Some employers allow employees to use webmail services, like Gmail. Does an employee have a right to use it? Can an employer monitor their use? Maybe to protect [...]
Hosting companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are often faced with the dilemma of being requested to reveal information about the identity or activities of their clients. The request may come from: a third party who alleges that a wrong [...]
Recently Helaine Leggat was one of the guests on Kaya FM to comment on the interception of email, voice, or other communications in the workplace and the right to privacy in the workplace. Caution: The audio files on Michalsons can [...]
There is direct link between the concepts of monitoring and privacy. The two need to be balanced and the right to privacy is not an absolute right and can be limited by invoking the general "limitation clause" in section 36 of [...]
