Our personal privacy is being eroded from various directions as modern technologies bring lots of new threats towards our personal privacy. Unfortunately, people are often oblivious about it and accept invasion of privacy to a great extent without questions. This thesis is a presentation of our study dealing with privacy violations while using the Internet. It also includes a further investigation about unsolicited bulk email, which is one of many consequences of bad privacy protection. We have also examined the differences between the United States and the European Union and found that the fundamental privacy protection is better in the European Union. We have used different methods to complete this thesis such as studies of literature and articles as well as performing a spam study. Using these methods we have concluded that privacy violations on the Internet is a significant problem and that the Internet users have a right to an adequate privacy protection.

The practice of spamming (sending unsolicited electronic communications) has been dubbed “the scourge of the 21st century” affecting different stakeholders. This practice is also credited for not only disrupting electronic communications but also, it overloads electronic systems and creates unnecessary costs for those affected than the ones responsible for sending such communications. In trying to address this issue nations have implemented anti-spam laws to combat the scourge. South Africa not lagging behind, has put in place anti-spam provisions to deal with the scourge. The anti-spam provisions are scattered in pieces of legislation dealing with diverse issues including: consumer protection; direct marketing; credit laws; and electronic transactions and communications. In addition to these provisions, an Amendment Bill to one of these laws and two Bills covering cybercrimes and cyber-security issues have been published. In this thesis, a question is asked on whether the current fragmented anti-spam provisions are adequate in protecting consumers. Whether the overlaps between these pieces of legislation are competent to deal with the ever increasing threats on electronic communications at large. Finally, the question as to whether a multi-faceted approach, which includes a Model Law on spam would be a suitable starting point setting out requirements for the sending of unsolicited electronic communications can be sufficient in protecting consumers. And as spam is not only a national but also a global problem, South Africa needs to look at the option of entering into mutual agreements with other countries and organisations in order to combat spam at a global level. / Mercantile Law / LL. D.