You can do something about the many uninvited SMS’s you receive on your phone from direct marketers.

Our Constitution respects your right to privacy. In addition, the Consumer Protection Act and the Protection of Personal Information Act contain specific provisions regulating direct marketing and your right to privacy.

The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) also does its share to protect you. It has introduced a Codes Project that gives consumers access to a platform to identify the owner of a short, long or USSD code at smscode.waspa.org.za 

By clicking on this link and inserting the sender’s number appearing on your phone, you can identify the originator of the marketing message if the sender is a WASPA member.

If the company that sent the SMS is a WASPA member, you can look up their contact details. You can then contact them directly to obtain more information about them, request them to remove you from their database or lodge a complaint with WASPA.

You can block the sender on your phone. Another remedy is to request WASPA to do so (as part of WASPA’s Do Not Contact (DNC) initiative, to avoid unsolicited SMS advertising. If the company fails to comply, WASPA will investigate.

The bottom line is that WASPA’s members – and their clients – can only send marketing messages to you if they are readily identifiable as the sender and you are an existing customer or have given them specific permission to SMS you.