Have your personal details been leaked online?

not including teenagers either and if we add them, that figure jumps to 29%,” wrote Hunt, on his blog, yesterday.

But there’s nothing you can do if your personal information has been compromised in this massive “master deeds” data breach, even though there is a way to check if it has been.

If you are an adult, however, and have been “pwnd”, as Hunt puts it on his website HaveIBeenPwnd.com, not even the law can help you, said Christoff Pienaar, technology and sourcing director at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.

“The Protection of Personal Information Act is not yet in force, so even the companies from whom the infor mation was hacked would right now have no regulator to pay a fine to,” said Pienaar.

The only action those who are compromised by the leaks can take is a delictual claim, he said.

But that is done through the prospective act. “If the act was in force, it would provide remedies and a complaint channel for those compromised by the unlawful processing of personal information.

“There would also be criminal sanctions in respect of organisations who do not comply,” Hofmeyr said. “But right now there is nothing you can do about it if your personal infor mation has been compromised.”

Under South African law the only circumstances under which compensation may be payable is if an individual suc- ceeds with a delictual claim for infringement of privacy against the individual or organisation who caused the data breach and is able to prove monetary loss.

Meanwhile, the Hawks confirmed they were investigating who had leaked the information.

Spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Malaudzi said there might be a possible break- through in their investigation but the details would be kept confidential.

The personal infor mation was hacked from Jigsaw Holdings, which holds various real-estate agencies under its title.

Jigsaw Holdings on Thursday admitted to being the source of the data leak as the hacked information had been hosted on its server. The names of people, their gender, ethnicity, home ownership and contact details are on the database.

The i nfor mation also includes identity numbers and details of employers.

Hunt has now loaded a search function for people to find out if their email addresses have been compromised – HaveIBeenPwnd.com.

Knowing if you are “pwnd” wil,l however, not help you unless you can prove the data breach has resulted in a direct monetary loss for you.