What is POPIA?
The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) is South Africa’s data protection legislation, fully in effect since July 2021. It governs how businesses collect, store and use personal information — including mobile phone numbers used for SMS marketing.
Key POPIA requirements for SMS marketing
Before sending marketing SMS messages in South Africa you must: obtain explicit consent from recipients, identify your business in every message, include an opt-out mechanism (recipients must be able to reply STOP), and honour opt-out requests immediately.
What counts as consent?
Consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. This means the recipient must actively agree to receive marketing messages from your business — pre-ticked boxes or buried terms do not count. Keep records of how and when consent was obtained.
Existing customer rule
Under POPIA, you may send SMS messages to existing customers about similar products or services without fresh consent, provided you gave them the opportunity to opt out when their data was collected and in every subsequent communication.
How SMSMessenger ensures POPIA compliance
SMSMessenger is fully POPIA and WASPA compliant. Our platform includes built-in opt-out management — when a recipient replies STOP, they are automatically blacklisted and will never receive further messages from your account. We never share your contact data with third parties and all data is encrypted at bank-level security.
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