Privacy, legal and regulatory issues in the management of the internet of things for South Africa

Abstract

The internet of things (IoT) is a concept which has its roots in sensing, networking and information processing approaches. It enables data exchange between devices, services and people. As a result of the integration of these technologies, big data is generated. Where there is big data involved, there arises challenges in privacy, legal and regulatory issues in the management and security of information within the sphere of IoT. There is no formal legislation yet in South Africa that is linked to IoT. However, there is a framework of pieces of legislation which govern information management and security within which the IoT should operate, for example, The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and The Electronic Communications Act. This research paper reports on such legislation, by extracting aspects that would apply to IoT, leading to the formulation of privacy, legal and regulatory issues of IoT for South Africa. Since IoT is an integration of big data, telecommunications, services and people, the identified aspects are those that relate to the information society, that is, the frequency spectrum, regulation of telecommunications, telecommunications policies, universal access, and interception of communications, rights of access to information, ethical issues and consumer protection.