Companies Scramble for Compliance as PoPI Act Deadline Closes in
- The Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA) will reportedly be in full effect from 1 July,2021
- Organisations and businesses seem to not be handling the news of the upcoming deadline too well
- Legal consequences of non-compliance could be a fine of up to R10 million or possibly jail time of up to 10 years
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After a year of preparation and anticipation, the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA) enters into full effect as of 1 July, 2021. Many organisations are not taking the upcoming deadline well as they panic to get their affairs in order or face legal consequences.
Temporary Employment Service (TES) is a great asset in aiding organisations to navigate the legal compliance landscape. Ensuring your TES provider is PoPIA complaint will ensure, at the very least, that the staffing aspect of the business is compliant, giving businesses the opportunity to focus on other key areas that may need to be urgently addressed.
Businesses could be unknowingly in breach of the PoPIA act as the legislative landscape changes constantly. The consequences of non-compliance with PoPIA can range from fines up to R10 million or even jail time of up to 10 years.
Source: Getty Images
According to reports by BusinessTech, the definition of personal information covers a wide range of areas including signatures, medical history, ID number and even employment history.
The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 aims:
- To increase the protection of all personal info that may be processed by either public or private bodies;
- To bring in conditions that may establish minimum requirements for the processing of personal info:
- To provide for the establishment of an Information Regulator to exercise certain powers and to perform certain duties and functions in terms of this Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000.
Read the rest of the Act here.
In other news, Briefly News previously reported that South Africa's Information Regulator (IR) revealed that Facebook Inc cannot share any contact information collected from WhatsApp users with its other companies without receiving authorisation from IR.
The agency previously wrote to Facebook about the changes to WhatsApp's privacy policy that could possibly result in South African users being kicked off the application.
Speaking on the difference in the privacy policy in the EU compared to South Africa, the IR said it was concerned. The IR noted that they are happy to discuss the issues with Facebook SA to ensure that there is full compliance.
"The IR has indicated to Facebook SA, that it is willing and committed to have a round-table discussion regarding the issues raised to ensure there is full compliance by the WhatsApp Privacy Policy with the provisions of the POPIA and other pertinent legal instruments."
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Source: Briefly News
