POPI (the Protection of Personal Information Act) is your new best friend. She’s going to handle all your personal information and do her best to protect it. There are, however, consequences if you don’t adhere to her rules. She’s not one to play with …
We talked to a local lawyer, Gert Ehlers, who explained what the penalties are if you fail to comply to POPI.
When being POPI compliant, a business has to ensure that they handle your information with care. The important thing is to remember that a business can only be allowed to collect data that is relevant to the specific transaction that you, the client, agreed upon. The person collecting your data should clearly state what the purpose of this data collection is, and you have the right to request for it to be destroyed at any time you feel necessary. In addition, the business has to destroy your information after they’re done with it.
Every business has a compliance officer, a POPI agent, if you will. They make sure that all necessary measures are set in place and that they have a transparent relationship with POPI, by ensuring all the rules are followed. This person must also be the first to know if something went wrong. They report directly to POPI, and if sensitive information has been leaked, the person affected will be notified as soon as possible. After that, the situation will be handled internally, while the compliance officer waits for the next step from POPI.
Every business has their own internal procedures for instances like this. Just like every business, it can happen that POPI cases can be different too. The penalties will vary to suit the specific offence that was reported. Most commonly, the offender will receive a fine, of which the amount will vary according to the severity of the offence. In the worst cases, you can get sentenced to jail.
As you can see, POPI takes the protection of your personal information very seriously, and you will be protected very well if you familiarise yourself with her, to make sure that you and/or your business complies with her.
Make sure to catch our next story about POPI, where we give her a minute or two to introduce herself.
If you’d like to know more and get the easiest solution for your business to comply with POPI, fill in the form below:
Oops! We could not locate your form.
