Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Sept. 14, 2018

Consumer protection takes a variety of different forms — from preventing damage to underground infrastructure, to keeping children safe online through cybersecurity measures, to helping consumers avoid being misled by false advertising.

This was the theme of OfReg’s presentation at this year’s Armour Expo 2018, a financial technology (“fintech”) and data governance conference held at the Grand Cayman Marriott on Sept. 12.

Alee Fa’amoe, Deputy CEO and Executive Director of ICT, gave the talk, supported by other key members of the ICT team, including Jose Hernandez, Manager – Internet and TV, and Keith Dixon, Project Manager.

The presentation highlighted the importance of collaboration between various entities to design and manage effective consumer protection programmes. As an example, Fa’amoe explained that developing a strong national cybersecurity strategy required input from the government, law enforcement, service providers, the private sector, and a cyber incident response team (CIRT), in addition to the function of OfReg as the regulator.

The conference provided an opportunity for Fa’amoe to announce the upcoming launch of the “Click Before You Dig” campaign, an OfReg initiative to identify and label underground public utility mains, launched in partnership with the Department of Planning. The programme will help protect people from injury, loss of essential services, and expensive restoration costs, and will prevent damage to Cayman’s extensive underground infrastructure, including gas, telephone, internet, TV, water, and electricity lines.

The presentation included a discussion of OfReg’s ongoing initiatives for consumer protection: “Last year, we introduced Truth in Advertising Guidelines for the ICT sector. The goal there was to help consumers avoid false or misleading advertising. Now, we turn our attention to ensuring the consumer can get what they pay for by introducing new ‘Consumer Protection Regulations’, Fa’amoe said. “The new ‘Consumer Protection Regulations’ will be published in October”.

Fa’amoe went on to say, “It was also great to be able to personally introduce conference attendees to ‘Engineer Ellie’ and ‘Professor Fibre’, our latest campaigns to help people understand their rights and responsibilities as consumers, as well as the importance of quality connectivity to the economic and social welfare of the Cayman Islands and its residents”.

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Pictured: Some students pose with ‘Engineer Ellie’ and ‘Professor Fibre’, OfReg’s newest team members.

OfReg (the Utility Regulation and Competition Office) is the independent regulator for the electricity, information and communications technology, water, wastewater, and fuels sectors in the Cayman Islands. OfReg also regulates the use of the electromagnetic spectrum and manages the .ky internet domain.