Privacy is a very serious matter and each person’s constitutional right to privacy is of importance. The protection of personal information and data has become a top priority for legislators in every jurisdiction, and has seen a large number of new data protection regulations coming into effect.
South Africa has implemented the POPI Act(Protection of Personal Information Act), which will be enforced from 1 July 2021 after a 1-year grace period. The consequences of local organisations not being compliant can cost up to R10milliom in fines and/or jail time.
The POPI Act’s main objectives is to control the processing of personal information and data protection in order to align all South African data protection laws with international standards. An Information Regulator has been appointed and is starting to get involved in matters relating to information security incidents that might have exposed personal data.
The POPI Act seeks to regulate and govern the manner in which companies and other commercial entities source, process, store, and share data, especially data relating to personal information. Personal Information includes but is not limited to; ID numbers, Name and Surname, email address, cell number etc.
All entities must be able to show that its data collection and processing is lawful, and that any procedures related are in line with the provisions of the POPI Act. However, many South African businesses are battling with understanding the POPI Act and risk not meeting the deadline, as they don’t understand the requirements.
For organisations, business and people with an interest in the POPI Act, ITWeb will be hosting its Security Summit virtually from the 1st to the 3rd of June 2021. During this event one of their attorneys will be presenting on , “POPIA: More than just a tick-box exercise?”. Her presentation will cover aspects such as the key requirements of POPIA, the impact of data breaches and the role of POPIA in enabling businesses to function more effectively.
To Register: https://www.itweb.co.za/event/itweb-security-summit-2021/
