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POPIA - South Africa Protection of Personal Information Act

Operationalize POPIA compliance with the most comprehensive PrivacyOps platform

Last Updated on November 16, 2023

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To protect the data of individuals in South Africa, Parliament passed the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) on 19th November 2013. The commencement date of sections establishing the national data protection authority was 11th April 2014. The commencement date of the remaining sections (excluding sections 110 and 114(4)) was 1st July 2020. POPIA came into effect on July 1st, 2021 and the Regulator is now able to take enforcement actions against any violations.

POPIA gives data subjects their constitutional right to privacy by safeguarding their personal information when processed by an organization and balancing the right to privacy against other rights. It also aims to protect important interests including the free flow of information within the Republic and across international borders. It also provides individuals the right to make requests in relation to their data and the ability to make complaints to the Regulator for violations of POPIA which carry serious reputational, financial, and operational risks.

The solution

Securiti enables organizations to comply with the POPIA regulations through AI-driven PI data discovery, DSR automation, documented accountability, enhanced visibility into data processing activities and AI-driven process automation.

South Africa Popia compliance solution

Securiti supports enterprises in their journey toward compliance with the POPIA through automation, enhanced data visibility and identity linking.

See how our comprehensive PrivacyOps platform helps you comply with various sections of POPIA

 

Customize a data subject rights request portal for seamless customer care

POPIA Section: 5(1)(b) and 5(1)(c)

Create customized web forms according to your brand image  with the DSR request format and accept verified data subject rights requests. Automate the initiation of fulfillment workflows when verified requests are received.

Popia dsr portal
Popia dsr handling

Automate data subject access request handling

POPIA Section: 5(1)(b)

Data subjects need to be notified about their data privacy rights and organizations are required to simplify the initiation of verified DSR requests.  The automation of the delivery and generation of secure data access reports will greatly reduce the risk of compliance violations and reduce the workforce required to comply with all the requests.

Secure fulfillment of data access and port requests

POPIA Sections: 5(1)(b), 23

Disclosure of information to the data subjects within a limited time frame of receiving a verifiable data request is a must for any organization looking to comply. This will be free of charge, and delivered through a secure, centralized portal.

Popia data access request
Popia data rectify request

Automate processing of rectification requests

POPIA Sections: 5(1)(c), 24

With the help of automated data subject verification workflows across all appearances of a subject’s personal data you can seamlessly fulfill all data rectification requests.

Automate erasure requests

POPIA Sections: 5(1)(c), 24

Fulfill data subject’s’ erasure requests, swiftly, through automated and flexible workflows.

Popia data erasure request
Popia processing request

Automate objection and restriction of processing requests

POPIA Sections: 5(1)(d), 11(3)(4)

Create a framework for restriction and objection of processing handling based on business requirements, with collaborative workflows.

Continuous monitoring and tracking

POPIA Section: 8

Keep track of risks involved by continuously scanning and monitoring data against non-compliance to subject rights, security controls or data residency.

Popia personal data monitoring tracking
Popia personal information data linking

Automate People Data Graph

POPIA Sections: 15, 17

Discover personal information stored across all your internal and external systems within the organization and link them back to a unique data subject. Also visualize personal data sprawl and identify compliance risks.

Meet cookie compliance

POPIA Sections: 11(1)(a), 12

Automatically scan the web properties within your organization, categorizing tags and cookies. Also build customizable cookie banners, collect consent and provide a preference center.

Popia Universal Consent Management
Popia Universal Consent Management

Monitor and track consent

POPIA Sections: 11(2), 15, 35(1)

Track consent revocation of data subjects to prevent the transfer or processing of data without their consent. Seamlessly demonstrate consent compliance to regulators and data subjects.

Assess POPIA readiness

POPIA Sections: 8, 19(2), Regulation 4(1)(b)

With the help of our multi-regulation, collaborative, readiness and PIIA assessment system you can gauge your organization's posture against POPIA requirements, identify the gaps and address the risks. Seamlessly being able to expand assessment capabilities across your vendor ecosystem to maintain compliance against POPIA requirements.

Popia Popia Readiness Assessment
Popia Data Flow Mapping

Map data flows

POPIA Sections: 15, 17

Track data flows in your organizations, trace this data, catalog, transfer and document business process flows internally and to service providers or third parties.

Manage vendor risk

POPIA Sections: 20, 21

Keep track of privacy and security readiness for all your service providers from a single interface. Collaborate instantly with vendors, automate data requests and deletions and manage all vendor contracts and compliance documents.

POPOI Vendor Risk Management
Popia breach response notification

Breach Response Notification

POPIA Sections: 21(2), 22

Automates compliance actions and breach notifications to concerned stakeholders in relation to security incidents by leveraging a knowledge database on security incident diagnosis and response.

Privacy Policy & Notice Management

POPIA Section 18

Use expert-made jurisdiction specific templates with built-in integration with the rest of your privacy stack to automate updates to the privacy policy & notice by tracking changes in cookie consent, universal consent, data processing, and data subject rights activities.

POPIA Privacy Policy Management

Key Rights Under POPIA

Confirmation
Data subjects have the right to confirm, free of charge, whether the organization holds any personal information concerning them.

Access
Data subjects have the right to request the record or description of their personal information held by an organization as well as the identity of all third parties or categories of third parties who have access to the information.

Correction
Data subjects have the right to make changes to inaccurate data.

Erasure
Data subjects have the right to have their personal data deleted if it is inaccurate or it is no longer required to be retained by the entity.

Consent
Data subjects have the right to withdraw their consent where data processing is based on the data subject’s consent.

Objection
Data Subjects have the right to object to certain forms of processing including processing of data for direct marketing communications.

Notification
Data Subjects have the right to be notified when data about them is being collected.

Quick facts about POPIA

1

POPIA has been a work-in-progress by the South African Law Reform Commission in 2005.

2

The delay in its enactment was because of the publication of the draft EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in 2013 as the POPIA drafting committee wanted to consider some of the proposed regulations in the GDPR.

3

POPIA has 8 legal conditions for the lawful processing of data.

4

The South African Information Regulator (SAIR) is the enforcing body of the POPIA which came into effect on April 11, 2014.

5

POPIA requires data controllers to appoint an Information Officer who will be responsible for encouraging compliance with the POPIA.

South Africa's POPIA Explained

South Africa’s POPIA View More
3:03

South Africa’s POPIA

The video gives an overview of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

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