LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ON THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT: IS THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION IN TERMS OF POPIA IN FORCE?
The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2014, (Act 13 of 2014), (POPIA), was assented to on 19 November 2013. Only certain sections of POPIA were brought into operation in order to appoint the Information Regulator and to allow the Minister to develop and draft regulations.
Once POPIA is fully in operation it will safeguard the personal information received, collected or disseminated from your business clients during the course of your business operations. POPIA will not prevent the processing or sharing of the personal information of your clients but will regulate how it should be done so that the information is safeguarded against misuse and abuse.
The Information Regulator recently released its strategic plan for 2017 to 2020. In terms of its strategic goals for the financial year 2017/2018 regulations will be developed.
It will be important for industries and businesses that receive, collect or disseminate their clients’ personal information to closely follow the developments pertaining to POPIA during the next year to ensure readiness, to receive advice on how to comply and possibly to influence how the Information Regulator will implement POPIA by submitting comments on the draft regulations when published.
For more information or advice contact us at Goldberg & de Villiers Inc Tel: 041 501 9800.
