Before and after, per regulation
| Area | Before | After 17 April 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing consent requests (reg 6 / Form 4) | Consent requested on Form 4 — read by industry as a written/paper exercise. | Consent may be obtained on a form substantially similar to Form 4 "or in any manner that may be expedient" — including email, telephone, SMS or WhatsApp; telephonic and automated-call requests must be electronically recorded. |
| Opt-out as consent (reg 6.4) | Marketers argued continued mailing with an unsubscribe link evidenced consent. | "opt-out shall not constitute consent as referred to in section 69 (2) of the Act" — the loophole closed in one sentence. |
| Objections to processing (reg 2) | Objections channelled through prescribed forms, in practice paper-bound. | Objections must be possible free of charge "by hand, fax, post, email, SMS, or WhatsApp and or in any manner expedient to a data subject"; telephonic objections electronically recorded. |
| Data subject requests (Form 2) | Access/correction requests on Form 2, with formality disputes common. | Requests may arrive by hand, post, email, SMS or WhatsApp on (or substantially similar to) Form 2; written outcome notification within 30 days. |
| Complaints to the Regulator | Complaints by the data subject concerned. | Complaints expressly opened to "any person with a sufficient personal interest" or "acting in the public interest". |
| Administrative fines | Instalments possible by arrangement under s 109(2)(d)(ii). | A case-by-case instalment procedure added for those unable to pay a fine in a lump sum. |
“For the purposes of direct marketing through unsolicited electronic communications, opt-out shall not constitute consent as referred to in section 69 (2) of the Act.”
What it means for you
Marketers: the consent ask got easier to deliver (WhatsApp, recorded calls) and impossible to fake — rebuild scripts around a genuine question, record the calls, and retire any process that treated silence or unsubscribe-availability as agreement. See section 69 and cold calling. Information officers: your intake channels multiplied — staff must recognise a WhatsApp message as a Form 2 request or an objection, route it, and hit the 30-day written-outcome clock. Everyone: the public-interest complaint standing means your POPIA posture can be challenged by people who are not your customers — activists included. Most competitor commentary online still predates these amendments; check the date on anything you read, including this page (last reviewed June 2026).