On the 1st of July 2020, some further sections of the POPI Act came into operation. The practical implication for businesses is that they should be compliant with these further sections by the 30th of June 2021 – SEESA article published on the 14th of July 2020.
Is the POPI Act applicable to your business?
This Act applies to the processing of personal information, therefor any Business and its employees must adhere to the handling of all personal information received from, but not limited to natural persons, employees, clients, suppliers, agents, representatives and business partners to ensure compliance with this Act, applicable regulations and other rules relating to the protection of personal information.
What is personal information?
The Act defines personal information as follows;
“Personal information means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where it is applicable and identifiable, existing juristic person, including, but not limited to –
- Information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
- Information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
- Any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or another particular assignment to the person;
- The biometric information of the person;
- The personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
- Correspondence sent by the person that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
- The views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
- The name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person.”
How can SEESA help you?
Our Consumer Protection & POPI experts audit your business to identify areas of concerns regarding the status in which your business processes personal information. We will then make certain recommendations that have to be implemented as a matter of urgency in order to comply with the provisions of the act regulating the processing of personal information, thus avoiding compliance orders, fines, compensation claims and in some cases imprisonment. This is where the training of employees and internal policies comes into play.
- POPI Training for your staff
SEESA offers POPI training to our existing (Consumer Protection & POPI) clients AND / OR provide Webinar training for existing (Skills Training Clients) and Once-off clients.
- Existing (Consumer Protection & POPI) clients can book POPI training by contacting their local SEESA office or legal advisor – a designated SEESA legal advisor at the client’s premises will conduct training at the client’s premises and the duration will be between 45min – 120 min.
- Webinar training is conducted by our SEESA Skills Development Facilitators and is a one day course – for more info please visit:
https://training.seesa.co.za/Security/Login.aspx
- Implementation of POPI Policies in your workplace
Every employer knows how important policies are in the workplace. Policies set out what the company expects from employees in terms of the behaviour, actions, and measures to be taken by the employer for non-compliance.
The purpose of (POPI) policies is to incorporate the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act No.4 of 2013 into the everyday operations of the Business and to ensure that these requirements are documented and implemented in the Business.
SEESA (Consumer Protection & POPI) clients can contact their designated legal advisor regarding the implementation of these policies.
References
Protection of Personal Information Act. Act No.4 of 2013
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Douw Krüger is a Consumer Protection- and POPI legal advisor and started his career at SEESA Kimberley in 2015. He obtained his LLB degree and Advance Certificate in Labour Law from the University of the Free State.