Preparation is of course always key to success, and compliance with POPIA (the Protection of Personal Information Act) is no different.
Do not be misled by the scare stories about having to comply immediately just because POPIA is now in force, but equally don’t fall into the trap of thinking “I can ignore this for now, I have until June next year to do something about it”.
The fact is that your business will benefit if you take steps right now to understand both how POPIA affects you, and how you can begin preparing for your compliance process. We share 4 practical tips on how to get started…
“By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail” (Benjamin Franklin)
The media is still awash with warnings about the dangers of not complying with POPIA (the Protection of Personal Information Act). The risks of non-compliance are indeed substantial but whilst much is made of the fact that the Act itself is now in force, references to the one-year grace period for compliance expiring on 30 June 2021 appear only in the fine print (if at all).
But – and this is a big but – there are major benefits to understanding POPIA and starting the compliance process long before it becomes compulsory. The penalties for getting it wrong are sizeable, “preparation makes perfect”, you are giving yourself lots of time to get it right, and for many businesses there is also good marketing potential in being able to tell your customers and clients that you are already addressing the situation.
Four practical steps to start with…
Before we start on your action plan, get to grips with the fact that you will almost certainly have to comply fully with POPIA. As soon as you in any way “process” (collect, use, manage, store, share, destroy and the like) any personal information relating to a “data subject” (customers, members, employees etc etc), you are a “responsible party”. Very few businesses will fall outside that net. Equally you are unlikely to fall under exemptions like that applying to information processed “in the course of a purely personal or household activity”. Get going with these steps –
You must show that “given the purpose for which it is processed, it is adequate, relevant and not excessive”, data can only be collected for a specific purpose related to your business activities, and can only be retained so long as you legitimately need to or are allowed to keep it.
There’s a lot more detail in POPIA, but you get the picture – you cannot collect or hold personal information without good and lawful cause.
Any actual or suspected breaches (called “security compromises” in POPIA) must be reported “as soon as reasonably possible” to both the Information Regulator and the data subject/s involved.
If third parties (”operators”) hold or process any personal information for you, they must act with your authority, treat the information as confidential, and have in place all the above security measures.
If your approach is by means of “any form of electronic communication, including automatic calling machines, facsimile machines, SMSs or e-mail”, you must observe strict limits. Whilst you can as a general proposition market existing customers in respect of “similar products or services” (there are limits and recipients must be able to “opt-out” at any stage), potential new customers can only be marketed with their consent, i.e. on an “opt-in” basis.
You are much less likely to have a POPIA problem if everyone in your business (and most importantly you!) understands what your procedures are and implements them as a matter of course. Make sure that no functions “fall between two stools” – assign individual compliance tasks to named staff members and make sure everyone understands who is to do what.
This is a complex topic and there is no substitute for tailored professional advice. What is set out above is of necessity no more than a simplified summary of a few highlights.
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