What is POPI and does it affect me?

The POPI (Protection Of Personal Information ) act affect everyone and its not exclusively for IT,Legal or Security. The POPI act affect all aspect of a company and public sector ( HR, Finance,Transport, Marketing and more) that stores your personal information and and how its being use. The POPI Act requires that companies and public body obtain consent and comply with the Eight information protection principles for processing information.

The Purpose of the POPI act

• To protect personal information that is processed by the private and public sectors.
• To hold Companies and public bodies responsible for protection of personal information and use of the information.

The Intention of the POPI Act

• To Protect the right to privacy that is recognized by our constitution
• Controlling the processing of personal information that is stored by a company or other public body within South Africa
• Control / prohibited unsolicited communication ( Direct marketing ) unless the candidate/ person involved has given his or her consent or is a customer.

What is the Personal information that the POPI Act will protect?

• Personal information relating to: children, race,sex,pregnancy,marital status, ethnicity, colour, sexual orientation, age health, religion, language, medical, financial, criminal, employment history, education of a person
• It covers I.D. numbers, Registration numbers addresses, telephone numbers ,e-mail address, online identifier( E.g. Twitter Handle) and blood types.
• Your personal view, opinions, preferences, correspondence of a person of a private nature
• Biometric information relating to physical, physiological or behavioral characterisation including blood typing ,fingerprinting, DNA analysis , retinal scanning and voice recognition.