Information Regulator Visits and Compliance Reviews

We have learned that the Information Regulator has started conducting visits to organisations in order to review their POPIA and PAIA Compliance practices.

In particular, we have recently been told by one of our clients that the Information Regulator has visited their head office and has conducted a review of their PAIA compliance.  In particular, they reviewed the publishing of their PAIA Manual, PAIA Guide (required in at least 2 official languages) as well as the current request forms for PAIA and POPIA on their website, They also inspected the availability in hard copy at their office. The Information Regulator also enquired about their PAIA and POPIA request processes and logs.

In addition to this, a large property management company with which we are associated has been advised to prepare for a visit and compliance review this month, the scope of which is unclear at this stage.

In view of the above, organisations should be prepared for a visit from the Information Regulator.  They should ensure that they have an up to date POPIA Compliance Framework in place encompassing their roles, policies, contracts, risk assessments and well as an overview of their security safeguards.  PAIA compliance measure should also be ready including the items mentioned above.

The purpose of this post is to help you be prepared, not to scaremonger.  We have long been advocates of the benefits of maintaining good privacy and data protection practices and we continue to encourage these.

Please contact us if you need assistance with your POPIA and PAIA compliance readiness.

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