To Consent OR Not To Consent: The Answer is Simple

 On 27 May 2022, the Department and Minister of Fisheries issued an email requesting applicants to either object or consent to the making public of their personal and commercial information recorded in their respective applications. 

The question we keep getting is "HOW DO WE RESPOND?" Here is our advice. Respond to the Minister as follows:

You must object in totality to the making public of any of your corporation / personal data for the reasons below. Fill out the form they require and in Part C insert the following: 

The Minister of Fisheries

Barbara Creecy

I refer to your department’s email below of 27 May 2022 pertaining to the issuance of personal information recorded in my corporation’s application(s) (APP NUMBER / S). 

I OBJECT TO THE ISSUANCE AND MAKING PUBLIC OF THIS DATA IN ITS ENTIRETY FOR THE REASONS STATED BELOW:

1. Your proposal is to make this data public in either EXCEL format or some other format on the internet via your department’s FRAP ON-LINE PORTAL. This information would be available to the world at large and pose a substantial risk to the security of my personal details and those of my directors, shareholders and the entity concerned. It would also risk exposure and the making public of the corporation’s confidential financial, trade, scientific, commercial and fishing data and records;

2. Your on-line platform does not secure data in an unencrypted format and has been proven to be insecure and capable of unauthorised access;

3. Your process ought to have identified the need for competitor access to applications at the start of this process and ought to have developed a system to comply with the requirements of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA). You cannot prejudice my rights and those of the corporation’s due to your poor planning and failure to understand our laws;

4. You admit in paragraph 3 of your email below, that you failed to plan for the making available of competitor applications at all despite designing a rights allocation process premised on comparative scoring and ranking of applications. 

5. Access to competitor applications can only be permissible in a secure controlled environment as has historically taken place. In this regard, your process ought to have ensured that every applicant provided hard copies of their Annexures at the minimum in order to facilitate such compliance with PAJA.

6. The making available of any personal and private data contained in the above mentioned applications (Sections 1 - 9, inclusive) is prejudicial, damaging and harmful to our commercial and private intellectual property and information. You are not authorised to make this available in the format proposed - ie in excel format and/or on the internet.  

7. Making any of our confidential and personal financial, trade, scientific, commercial and fishing data and records public will be capable of wide scale access, manipulation, and secondary sale to vast numbers of potential consumers of data and information. 

8. Certain information which excludes Identity numbers, addresses, banking details, financial statements and fishing plans may be made available to competitor applicants provided these are made available in hard copy and at departmental offices where these are viewed and studied in a secure and controlled environment which does not prejudice our rights to personal privacy and the theft of personal and commercial data and property. 

Remember you have until Friday 3 June to submit your response.