Here it is, everyone – the podcast I actually got requests to record!
I chat (and laughed, a LOT) with the ever-so-lovey Caryn Myers of Myers Attorneys about the impending POPI Act which officially comes into law on 1 July this year (2021). We cover stuff around data privacy, consent, tele-marketers, storage of information, and what you as a business need to do to ensure compliance.
As a bit of a disclaimer, the act itself is extremely broad and this podcast is by no means exhaustive. In fact, the scope of this conversation only covers a handful of key points. So, if you’re a South African business and need additional information, please refer to the resources in the show notes, or feel free to reach out to an expert in this field to discuss your options.
Enjoy!
Show Notes:
Quote: “The principle of PoPI is: I can do whatever I want with my personal information, [but] that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want with it.”
Quote: “It will impact everyone. It might impact you because you’re a business owner and you deal with other people’s information, or it will impact you because you have personal information and other people are dealing with [that] personal information.”
Quote: “95% of [data] breaches are caused by human error. And that’s the problem – we’re not training people about those kinds of things.”
Quote: “…and really that’s what PoPI does. It says, “If you’re a business – what they call a responsible party – that holds someone else’s information, you need to make sure you’re protecting that information properly.””
Quote: “Funnily enough, the more free we are with our information, the more we want to protect it.”
Quote: “Personal information is really broadly defined in the Act, and it applies to personal information about a natural entity or a legal entity – a person or a company… Any information that is made public by the source, is deemed to be publicised or “publication”, and then won’t necessarily enjoy the protection of PoPI… Which is a little bit of a red herring because while they won’t enjoy the protection of PoPI for you to contact them (you’ll be able to because they’ve made that information public), and ask them if you can send them [marketing] emails, etc, once they say “no, you can’t”, consent is refused and PoPI applies.”
Resource: Protection of Personal Information Act (South Africa)
Resource: Information Regulator (South Africa)
About Myers Attorneys
Myers Attorneys is a boutique legal firm specialising in all aspects of the South African regulatory and business environment.
Our solutions-driven team focuses on delivering efficient and effective service backed by high standards of professionalism, integrity and respect. We create and implement solutions in the areas of Commercial, Conveyancing, Labour and Litigation Law.
You can find Caryn on the Myer’s Attorneys website or connect with her on LinkedIn.
My intro / outro music was created by Joseph McDade
Megamalist 