POPI – We’ve Got You Covered

With rumours circulating of an effective date towards the end of the year, there’s been a lot of fuss lately around the Protection of Personal Information Act, otherwise known as POPI.

The basic idea behind POPI is the regulation of the processing of personal information. Personal information, broadly speaking, refers to any information regarding an identifiable natural or legal person, for example contact details, demographic information and private correspondence. Processing simply means anything done with personal information, including, but not limited to collection, storage, dissemination or destruction.

So what does this mean for you in terms of your payroll data?

As an employer, you will need to ensure that your employees’ personal information is processed in a manner consistent with the spirit and purport of POPI, meaning that it must be

• processed with the employee’s knowledge and permission;
• linked to a reasonable purpose – such as complying with tax and labour laws; and
• carefully managed

At SimplePay, this was the case long before POPI, as the security of your sensitive payroll data has always been one of our greatest priorities. That’s why we have taken all of the steps reasonably possible to ensure that your and your employee’s data is securely stored and only accessed when necessary by those with the required permission to do so. This is done by means of SSL encryption, regular backups to two separate off-site locations and off-site data storage in an access controlled data centre.

For more detail on how we keep your data safe and your business POPI compliant, check out our Privacy Policy and Security Statement.