We just presented two topics at this year’s customer services conference in Sandton.

We will be posting the two topics covered on this forum so as to enable either information sessions or further discussion.

The topics were:
1. Customer Services and Technology-Driven Improvements; and
2. Social Media Meets Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Hopefully we can post Part I over the coming weekend already… Watch this space

Twitter, championed as a tool of free expression during the Arab Spring, was facing censorship charges on Friday after announcing it can now block tweets on a country-by-country basis if legally required to do so.

San Francisco-based Twitter stressed the move in no way compromised its commitment to free speech, but the backlash was immediate with critics taking to the service by the thousands to tweet disappointment and outrage. “This is very bad news,” said Mahmoud Salem, the Egyptian pro-democracy activist and blogger who tweets using the handle @sandmonkey. “Is it safe to say that #Twitter is selling us out?” “Yet another low for free speech,” said Jannis Leidel, or @jezdez.

Some Twitters users called for a boycott of the service on Saturday, punctuating their tweets with the hashtag #TwitterBlackout. Others questioned whether Twitter’s move was related to a $300-million investment in December by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, a country with strong internet censorship. Olivier Basille, director of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), expressed “deep concern” in a letter to Jack Dorsey, executive chairperson and co-founder of Twitter, which has over 100 million active users. “By finally choosing to align itself with the censors, Twitter is depriving cyber-dissidents in repressive countries of a crucial tool for information and organisation,” Basille said. “Are you going to block the accounts of Syrian cyber-dissidents if the Syrian authorities tell you to do so?” he asked. Basille questioned whether Twitter’s move was motivated by a desire to enter China, where the service is currently blocked. “Is it possible that one day there will be a sanitised Chinese version of Twitter that has been rid of any reference to the Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo?” he asked.

In its blog post, Twitter said the ability to block tweets by specific country would allow the rest of the world to continue to see them. Twitter pledged to be transparent and said it would post details of any removal of content to ChillingEffects.org, a public database of takedown requests. “As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” Twitter said. “Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. “Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content,” Twitter said.

Technology bloggers said Twitter, by giving itself the ability to block content selectively for legal reasons, was falling in line with practices already followed by other web giants such as Google, Facebook and eBay. Danny Sullivan, chief editor of MarketingLand.com, said “these types of censorship demands have long been placed against search engines like Google or anyone who hosts content. “Twitter is preparing for potential demands in the way that Google already does, by alerting its users to when content has been withheld and providing information about why,” he said on MarketingLand.com.

Twitter has already been removing content to comply with copyright complaints, Sullivan noted. “What’s new is that eventually, Twitter may expand to having staff based in other countries,” he said. “That makes the company more liable to legal actions in those countries, so it needs a way to comply with those legal demands. “Overall, there doesn’t seem to be a particular reason to hit the panic button here,” Sullivan said. Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina and a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said that far from promoting censorship, Twitter’s move was a “model policy.” “Twitter’s latest policy is purposefully designed to allow Twitter to exist as a platform as broadly as possible while making it as hard as possible for governments to censor content, either tweet by tweet or more, all the while giving free-speech advocates a lot of tools to fight censorship,” Tufekci said. “The idea that Twitter can just ignore court orders everywhere is not only unrealistic, it would result in more countries (trying) to block Twitter completely,” she said on her blog. “The internet is not a ‘virtual’ space, and cyberspace is not a planet which can float above all jurisdictions forever.” She said the plan to publicise where tweets have been blocked is a “level of transparency (that) should be the model for all internet companies” and also a powerful tool for free-speech advocates.

At the beginning of last year it was speculated that, “The chance of a reversal [in the rand] has also increased this year as the currency is well into overvalued territory… Increased risk aversion, particularly from Europe, could accelerate this trend”. The rand did have a turbulent year in 2011, losing ground against most currencies. The main reason for the weakness was renewed risk aversion due to a worsening in the Eurozone crisis and disappointment over global economic prospects.

After a shaky start to the year the rand settled into a relatively narrow trading range until a renewal of global jitters in July and August pushed it significantly weaker. Markets began to realise that the Eurozone crisis was far from over and that there was a significant danger that it could spread to the “too big to fail and too big to support” category of countries in Europe, such as Italy and perhaps even France. Spreads on Italian 5-year credit default swaps (CDS) went from 133 basis points (bp) in early July to nearly 500 bp in late September as participants scrambled to cover against the unthinkable. During this period the currency lost 16 percent against the trade-weighted basket, accounting for most of the cumulative 17.6 percent depreciation for the year.

The second concern to markets was the general loss of momentum in the global economy. As usual, the year had started with optimism over the outlook and a feeling that trend growth would at last start to resume. The combined natural and nuclear disaster in Japan in March led to a sudden contraction in Japanese economic production as well as supply chain disruptions across the globe. However, it was felt that the Japanese economy would bounce back quickly and that the global economy would strengthen in the second half of the year. Japan did stage a remarkable comeback, but this was insufficient to offset a more general slowdown elsewhere. This included the United States, which was also embroiled in a fiscal battle (to raise the debt ceiling and come up with a bipartisan plan to cut the deficit over the next few years) and still had structural issues in the housing, labour and credit markets to contend with.

China too started showing signs of slowing down and stress in certain areas such as the property market. Against this background, commodity prices were generally weak in 2011, particularly in the second half of the year as gloomier sentiment set in. Two exceptions were oil and gold, which both performed strongly until September when they corrected from elevated levels. Prospects for 2012 are less clear than they were at the start of 2011. The currency is much closer to fair value than it was at the start of last year, suggesting that most of the expected correction has already taken place. However, all purchasing power parity estimates (which use inflation differentials to estimate competitiveness losses and gains) have their limitations and the rand often deviates significantly from theoretical fair value over extended periods.

www.psyberconsulting.co.za

DIVIDEND WITHOLDING TAX – EFFECTIVE 01 APRIL 2012

Background

In 2007 the Minister of Finance announced that Secondary Tax on Companies (“STC”) will be replaced by a Dividend Withholding Tax (“DWT”). Subsequent to this announcement legislation has been enacted to provide for the implementation of DWT. In a recent government gazette the Minister of Finance has announced that DWT will come into operation on 1 April 2012 (“the Effective Date”).

Currently South African companies listed on the JSE Limited (the “JSE”) pay STC to the South African Revenue Services (“SARS”). The amount of STC is determined by reference to the dividends declared by the company after taking into account any STC credits applicable.

From the Effective Date DWT will be levied at a rate of 10% (ten percent) based on dividends declared and paid by companies. From an administrative perspective the Income Tax Act No 58 of 1962 (the “ITA” ) provides for DWT to be deducted by the authorised regulatory intermediary and a net amount (gross dividend less DWT) paid to the shareholder. As a member of the JSE, SBG Securities (Pty) Ltd (“SBG Securities”) is regarded for purposes of the ITA as a regulated intermediary. A regulated intermediary will, inter alia, be responsible for making the DWT payments to SARS on behalf of beneficial shareholders, subject to certain exemptions.

Exemptions provided in the ITA

The ITA in Section 64F provides for various exemptions with regard to the imposition of DWT based on the nature or status of the beneficial shareholder. The current list of exemptions are as follows:
A South African resident company or close corporation;
The South African Government, provincial administration or a local municipality;
A South African Public Benefit Organisation (“PBO”) approved by the Commissioner in terms of Section 30(3) of the ITA;
A trust contemplated in section 37A of the ITA (i.e. a rehabilitation trust);
An institution, board or body contemplated in section 10(1)(cA) of the ITA (examples: Water Board, tribal authorities);
A fund contemplated in Section 10(1)(d)(i) (i.e. a South African pension, provident or retirement annuity fund ) or Section 10(1)(d)(ii) (i.e. a benefit fund, being a friendly society registered under the Friendly Societies Act, 1956 and any medical scheme registered under the provisions of the Medical Schemes Act, 1998);
A person contemplated in section 10(1)(t) (examples: CSIR, SANRAL, Development Bank of South Africa);
A shareholder in a registered micro business, as defined in the Sixth Schedule (limited to the first R200 000 of these dividends). Micro business is defined as “any person whose qualifying turnover for a year of assessment does not exceed R1 000 000”;
A natural person who is a shareholder or member and the dividend received constitutes the Capital Gains Tax (“CGT”) free disposal of his/her primary residence (limited to the first R1 500 000 gain made on the disposal of the primary residence);
A person who is a non-resident and the dividend is paid by a non-resident company.
It is further noted that special provisions apply to dividends in specie which will result in companies being liable to pay the DWT.

What is required of SBG Securities Clients

We encourage all clients to review the list of exemptions together with your tax consultant in order to assess whether or not any of the aforesaid exemptions apply. Please note that it is your responsibility to advise SBG Securities timeously of any applicable exemptions and to provide SBG Securities with the documentation and information required by SARS in this regard. A further communication will be sent to all clients once SARS has finalised the declarations and undertakings to ensure that SBG Securities has the relevant information relating to DWT.

It is further noted that as a consequence of the aforesaid amendments to the ITA, SBG Securities will be required to amend its trading mandate(s) to include provisions relating to DWT. All clients will therefore be required to accept a revised SBG Securities trading mandate in due course, which revised terms shall take effect from no later than the Effective Date.

Various training opportunities will be given this year, with extension into the financial, tax as well as Financial Systems arenas.

Starting off this year, we will be focussing on SARS eFiling training – the levels available are Intermediate and Advanced (Administrators). The former is aimed at individuals where the latter is aimed at tax practitioners and other interested parties. Please contact Psyber Consulting directly for more information

www.psyberconsulting.co.za

The Banker magazine has named Nedbank Group as the South African Bank of the Year for 2011. I reckon this is probably the same as being “awarded” (read ‘rewarded’) head boy after your parents have subsidised most of the sports events the high school had to offer…

Government regulators are sharing some alarming information about Facebook: They believe the online social network has often misled its more than 800 million users about the sanctity of their personal information. The unflattering portrait of Facebook’s privacy practices emerged Tuesday in a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that Facebook exposed details about users’ lives without getting legally required consent. In some cases, the FTC charged, Facebook allowed potentially sensitive details to be passed along to advertisers and software developers prowling for customers.

To avoid further legal wrangling, Facebook agreed to submit to government audits of its privacy practices every other year for the next two decades. The company committed to getting explicit approval from its users – a process known as “opting in” – before changing their privacy controls. The FTC’s truce with Facebook, along with settlements this year with Google and Twitter, is helping to establish more ground rules for online privacy expectations even as Internet companies regularly vacuum up insights about their audiences in an effort to sell more advertising.

Although Facebook didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the legal papers it signed with the FTC, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was more contrite in a blog post Tuesday. “I’m the first to admit that we’ve made a bunch of mistakes,” Zuckerberg wrote. “In particular, I think that a small number of high-profile mistakes … have often overshadowed much of the good work we’ve done.”

Facebook has overcome its missteps in the past to emerge as the world’s largest social network and one of the Internet’s most influential companies since Zuckerberg created the website in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004. No website has been as successful as Facebook at getting people to voluntarily share intimate details about themselves. Zuckerberg has emerged as the Internet’s chief evangelist for sharing, partly because he believes it can help make the world a better place by making it easier for people to stay connected with the things and people that they care about. Facebook also is trying to make money by mining the personal information that it collects to help customize ads and aim the messages at people most likely to buy the products and services being promoted.

That strategy has been working well as Facebook prepares to sell its stock in an initial public offering that’s expected next year. The company’s revenue this year is expected to approach $4.3 billion, according to research firm eMarketer, up from $777 million in 2009. The rapid growth is expected to make Facebook the biggest Internet IPO in history, topping Google’s stock market debut in 2004.

Google tried to lure people away from Facebook with a system that made it easier to guard their personal information. Facebook has responded by introducing more granular privacy settings. The FTC cracked down on Google eight months ago for alleged privacy abuses that occurred last year when the company attempted to plant a social network called Buzz within its widely used Gmail service. Like Facebook, Google agreed to improve its privacy practices and submit to external audits for the next 20 years. Twitter, the online short-messaging service, also struck a settlement with the FTC in June to resolve charges that it didn’t do enough to protect users’ accounts from computer hackers.

The complaint also charges that Facebook shared its users’ personal information with third-party advertisers from September 2008 through May 2010 despite several public assurances from company officials that it wasn’t passing the data along for marketing purposes. Facebook believes that happened only in limited instances, generally when users clicked on ads that appeared on their personal profile pages. Most of Facebook’s users click on ads when they are on their “Wall” – a section that highlights their friends’ posts – or while visiting someone else’s profile page.

The FTC also alleged that Facebook displayed personal photos even after users deleted them from their accounts.

Facebook’s agreement with the FTC requires the company to obey privacy laws or face fines of $16,000 per day for each violation.

Apparently, Moody’s has kept the outlook for SA’s banking system stable – this comes as no real surprize as we, the customers, are being ripped off on a daily basis by exorbitant bank charges and ridiculous fees overall.

A report cites the following: “the improved operating conditions in the last two years have had a positive impact on the banking sector’s performance”. Once again, these “operating conditions” only mildly allure to the fact that banks are making huge profits, at our expense. On the other side of the coin, some of these “conditions” definitely protected us from the major implications that other countries are facing due to their relaxed lending policies, but the South African public is not as interested in this as much as what affects our pockets each month. This would also not be frowned upon as much, if banks only started to understand that their forced monopolies are being overcharged and this overcharging is starting to affect not just individuals, but also small businesses which in turn has a major impact on the economy as a whole.

The only “upside” to this report is the fact that Moody’s downgraded SA’s debit outlook from stable to negative. At least this places the focus on the fact that public funds are dwindling and poverty and unemployment is on the rise – what we, and the banks, are doing about this, is as yet unclear…

www.psyberconsulting.co.za

Internet service providers cannot be forced to install filters aimed at preventing people from illegally downloading music and other files, the EU’s top court ruled on Thursday. The decision by the European Union Court of Justice is a defeat for backers of web filters, including artists and the enterainment industry, who are fighting to protect their work from circulating freely on the internet.

The judges ruled that a national court cannot impose an injunction ordering an internet provider to install a filtering system for all electronic communications, saying it is too expensive for the company and could infringe on people’s fundamental rights. The case arose from a dispute in Belgium pitting web provider Scarlet Extended SA against SABAM, a Belgian management company responsible for authorising the use of music of authors, composers and editors. SABAM complained in 2004 that Scarlet’s customers were using peer-to-peer networks, which allow people to share files online, to download works from its catalogue without authorisation and without paying royalties. A Belgian court then ordered Scarlet to make it impossible for its customers to send or receive any electronic files containing SABAM music. But the EU court ruled that such filters require the monitoring of all electronic comunications, which is incompatible with the Union’s E-Commerce rules. An injuction would “result in a serious infringement of Scarlet’s freedom to conduct its business as it would require Scarlet to install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its own expense,” the court said. “The filtering system would also be liable to infringe the fundamental rights of its customers, namely their right to protection of their personal data and their right to receive or impart information,” it added.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the record industry worldwide, said that despite the rejection, the ruling only affected one system to protect copyrighted material online in Europe. “In this particular case, the court rejected the content filtering measure presented by the Belgian court as too broad,” said IFPI chief executive Frances Moore. “However, this does not affect the forms of ISP cooperation that IFPI advocates including graduated response and the blocking of rogue websites, which are already being implemented in countries across Europe,” he said. The European Internet Services Providers Association, which represents 1800 ISPs across Europe, welcomed the ruling, saying it would have “serious implications” for content blocking systems imposed in other EU states. “Considering the major contribution that the internet industry can make to the economic recovery, it was indeed not the time to put the innovation of the internet at risk,” said association president Malcolm Hutty.

www.psyberconsulting.co.za

– article courtesy of iafrica.com

Banking giant ABSA (surprise, surprise – well I actually thought Nedbank might come out tops), identified as one of the two most expensive banks in SA in  a report on bank charges last year, has retained its title (surely, nothing to be proud of). Apparently, bank charges of ABSA’s cheapest account went up by 8%, while Capitec’s bank charges were not increased at all this year. Not surprising at all, Capitec’s Global One account comes out as the least expensive.

According to the report, Standard Bank and ABSA were still overall the most expensive of the five major SA banks…

www.psyberconsulting.co.za