{"id":463,"date":"2015-12-08T09:38:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T09:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clcs.co.za\/?p=463"},"modified":"2016-01-07T08:03:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T08:03:58","slug":"popi-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/2015\/12\/08\/popi-act\/","title":{"rendered":"POPI Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

4 NOVEMBER 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

POPI Act? (The Protection of Personal Information Act)<\/p>\n

Please take the time to read the information below, seeing that this Act affects everyone. Even a document like your visitors book will need to be protected, seeing that there is personal information on there.<\/p>\n

\"12191015_532027756954313_7717120260156194859_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is POPI all about?
\nPOPI refers to South Africa\u2019s Protection of Personal Information Bill which seeks to regulate the Processing of Personal Information.
\nPersonal Information broadly means any information relating to an identifiable, living natural person or juristic person (companies, CC\u2019s etc.) and includes, but is not limited to:
\n\u2022 contact details: email, telephone, address etc.
\n\u2022 demographic information: age, sex, race, birth date, ethnicity etc.
\n\u2022 history: employment, financial, educational, criminal, medical history
\n\u2022 biometric information: blood type etc.
\n\u2022 opinions of and about the person
\n\u2022 private correspondence etc.
\nProcessing means broadly anything done with the Personal Information, including collection, usage, storage, dissemination, modification or destruction (whether such processing is automated or not).<\/p>\n

Some of the obligations under POPI are to:
\nonly collect information that you need for a specific purpose
\napply reasonable security measures to protect it
\nensure it is relevant and up to date
\nonly hold as much as you need, and only for as long as you need it
\nallow the subject of the information to see it upon request<\/p>\n

When will POPI affect me?
\nThe Bill is expected to become law in early 2013. A compliance grace period of 1 year will exist, which may be extended to a maximum 3 years after the Act has come into force.<\/p>\n

Does POPI really apply to me?
\nAccountability for compliance rests with a Responsible Party, meaning a public or private body or any other person which,
\nalone or in conjunction with others, determines the purpose of and means for processing personal information. Generally the Responsible party must be resident in South Africa or the processing should occur within South Africa (subject to certain exclusions).<\/p>\n

There are cases where POPI does not apply. Exclusions include:
\n\u2022 purely household or personal activity
\n\u2022 sufficiently de-identified information
\n\u2022 some state functions including criminal prosecutions, national security etc.
\n\u2022 journalism under a code of ethics
\n\u2022 judiciary functions etc.<\/p>\n

Why should I comply with POPI?
\nPOPI promotes transparency with regard to what information is collected and how it is to be processed. This openness is likely to increase customer confidence in the organisation.
\nPOPI compliance involves capturing the minimum required data, ensuring accuracy, and removing data that is no longer required. These measures are likely to improve the overall reliability of the organisation databases.
\nCompliance demands identifying Personal Information and taking reasonable measures to protect the data. This will likely reduce the risk of data breaches and the associated public relations and legal ramifications for the organisation.
\nNon-compliance with the Act could expose the Responsible Party to a penalty of a fine and \/ or imprisonment of up to 12 months. In certain cases the penalty for non-compliance could be a fine and \/ or imprisonment of up 10 years.<\/p>\n

Who is affected by this legislation?
\nThe answer is quite simple \u2013 everybody. Every business will have to align itself with this Act or face the consequences, and every individual and business is entitled to the protection afforded by this Act.<\/p>\n

How bulky is the process to align with the legislation?
\nDepending on the current practices and policies of the business, experts in the field estimate anything from 6 months to 5 years.<\/p>\n

Who is going to be held accountable should I not comply with the legislation?
\nThe business owner\/s will be held accountable in terms of this Act.<\/p>\n

I run a small business with few personnel and clients. Why must I adhere to this Act?
\nThe Act does not make a distinction between small, medium or large businesses and everybody is measured according to the same standard.<\/p>\n

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What is the benefit for me\/my business when I comply with this Act?
\nThe benefit lies in the fact that you are operating lawfully in terms of the South African legislation. Consumer confidence studies have shown that consumers would, in 90% of cases, much rather do business with companies that are transparent who complies with legislation, than any other business.<\/p>\n

What is personal information?
\nThe definition of Personal Information in terms of the legislation makes it difficult, if not impossible, to exclude ANY information as not being personal.<\/p>\n

What are the consequences should I decide to not comply with the legislation?
\nThe Act is clear in this regard and administrative fines can reach up to R 10 million and \/ or imprisonment for up to 10 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 NOVEMBER 2015 POPI Act? (The Protection of Personal Information Act) Please take the time to read the information below, seeing that this Act affects everyone. Even a document like your visitors book will need to be protected, seeing that there is personal information on there. What is POPI all about? POPI refers to South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464,"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clcs.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}