The 1st of July 2021 is firmly fixed in our minds as the date that all organisations need to be POPI compliant. While that is true for the overall effective date of POPI, it is not true for certain actions that need to be taken before the ultimate effective date.
One such
requirement is Regulation 4 which becomes effective on 1 May 2021 and requires
that an Information Officer is registered on the government’s electronic portal
by then.
Non-compliance
could result in an offence in terms of the POPI Act, an Information Regulator
Notice and a possible criminal charge with a hefty fine, imprisonment or both!
Who to appoint as Information Officer
Any person
authorised as an Information Officer should be at an executive level or an
equivalent position. This means that only an employee at a level of management
or above should be considered for authorisation as your Information Officer.
The duties of
the Information Officer are to ensure that the organisation complies with the
provisions of POPI, deals with requests made under POPI and assists the
Information Regulator with any investigations concerning the organisation.
How do you register an Information
Officer?
In our latest POPI-Portal training, we take you through the registration process as regulated in the Guidance Notes from the Information Regulator in the video linked below (16:28). There are two options -
Online Registration: Submit your registration through the Information Regulators Online Portal which will be available from the end of April, or
Manual Registration:
- Download the required Registration Forms here
- Complete 'Annexure A' and 'Annexure C' to appoint and authorise your Information Officer
- Send the completed Registration Forms to: registration.IR@justice.gov.za on the 1st of May 2021
We were privileged to be joined by industry expert and TransUnion CEO, Lee Naik to share his insights on data protection and the role of leadership in the digital age - a must-watch! You can catch the video on replay now:
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