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POPIA

Comply with POPIA

South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act 4 of 2013) ('POPIA') was promulgated into law on 26 November 2013, following the President's signature. A period of relative stasis then followed for several years while a commencement date for the key provisions was decided upon. The Information Regulator ('the Regulator'), the data protection authority provided for by POPIA was established during this time and held its first meeting late in 2016, although its operations were limited.

The Regulator announced, on 1 July 2021, that its enforcement powers under POPIA are into effect from 1 July 2021, following the conclusion of the 12-month transition period for compliance as provided under Section 110 of POPIA.

POPIA is further supported by the Regulations Relating to the Protection of Personal Information (2018), which establish additional provisions on the application of POPIA and contain several template forms.

OneTrust DataGuidance's POPIA Portal provides you with the ability to track developments regarding POPIA and understand its obligations.


POPIA v. GDPR

OneTrust DataGuidance have produced a POPIA v. GDPR report which you can download here, and which assists organisations in understanding and comparing key provisions of the POPIA comparative to the GDPR. You can also leverage this information through our GDPR v. POPIA Comparison in the tab above.


South Africa Privacy Landscape Overview

Watch our South Africa Overview video to understand the state of privacy in South Africa today.

POPIA v GDPR

GDPR Benchmark

This Chart aims at assisting organisations in understanding and comparing key provisions of the GDPR with relevant data protection law from around the globe. This Chart provides a comparison of the following key provisions:

  1. Scope
  2. Definitions and legal basis
  3. Rights
  4. Enforcement

Each topic includes relevant articles and sections from the law compared, a summary of the comparison, and a detailed analysis of the similarities and differences. The degree of similarity for each section can be identified using the key.

Scope Benchmark

    title
  • Personal scope
  • Territorial scope
  • Material scope
  • Argentina
    • Fairly inconsistent

    • Fairly inconsistent

    • Fairly consistent

  • Australia
    • Fairly inconsistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly consistent

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Rights Benchmark

    title
  • Right to deletion
  • Right to be informed
  • Right to object
  • Right to access
  • Right not to be subject to discrimination
  • Right to data portability
  • Argentina
    • Inconsistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly inconsistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Inconsistent

  • Australia
    • Inconsistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Inconsistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Consistent

    • Inconsistent

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Enforcement Benchmark

    title
  • Monetary penalties
  • Supervisory authority
  • Civil remedies
  • Argentina
    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly consistent

  • Australia
    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly consistent

    • Fairly inconsistent

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Create an account to continue accessing select articles, resources, and guidance notes.

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Unlimited Access

Start your free trial to access unlimited articles, resources, guidance notes, and workspaces.