POPI MANUALS

Safe alert technologies (pty) ltd

COMPLIANCE MANUAL FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT

  1. INTRODUCTION

    The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) is intended to balance the competing interests, which are:

    1. Our individual constitutional rights to privacy; and
    2. The needs of our society to have access to and to process our personal information for legitimate purposes, including the purpose of doing business.
  2. OUR UNDERTAKINGS TO CUSTOMERS:
    1. We undertake to follow POPI at all relevant times and to process personal information lawfully and reasonably, so as not to infringe unnecessarily on the privacy of customers.
    2. We undertake to process information only for the purpose for which it is intended, and to enable us to provide goods and services, as agreed with customers.
    3. Whenever necessary, we shall obtain consent to process personal information.
    4. Where we do not seek consent, the processing of the customer’s personal information will be compliance with a legal obligation placed upon us, or to protect a legitimate interest that requires protection.
    5. We shall stop processing personal information if the required consent is withdrawn, or if a legitimate objection is raised.
    6. We shall collect personal information directly from the customer whose information we require, unless:
      1. the information is of public record, or
      2. the customer has consented to the collection of their personal information from another source, or
      3. the collection of the information from another source does not prejudice the customer, or
      4. the information to be collected is necessary for the maintenance of law and order or national security, or
      5. the information is being collected to comply with a legal obligation, including an obligation to SARS, or
      6. the information collected is required for the conduct of proceedings in any court or tribunal, where these proceedings have commenced or are reasonably contemplated; or
      7. the information is required to maintain our legitimate interests; or 6.8 where requesting consent would prejudice the purpose of the collection of the information; or
      8. where requesting consent is not reasonably practical in the circumstances.
    7. We shall advise customers of the purpose of the collection of the personal information.
    8. We shall retain records of the personal information we have collected for the minimum period as required by law unless the customer has furnished their consent or instructed us to retain the records for a longer period.
    9. We shall destroy or delete records of the personal information as soon as reasonably possible after the time period for which we were entitled to hold the records have expired.
    10. We shall restrict the processing of personal information:
      1. where the accuracy of the information is contested, for a period sufficient to enable us to verify the accuracy of the information;
      2. where the purpose for which the personal information was collected has been achieved and where the personal information is being retained only for the purposes of proof;
      3. where the customer requests that the personal information is not destroyed or deleted, but rather retained; or
      4. where the customer requests that the personal information be transmitted to another automated data processing system.
    11. The further processing of personal information shall only be undertaken:
      1. if the requirements of paragraphs 3 and 6 above have been met; 11.2 where the further processing is necessary because of a threat to public health or public safety or to the life or health of the customer, or a third person;
      2. where the information is used for historical, statistical or research purposes and the identity of the customer will not be disclosed; or
      3. where this is required by the Information Regulator appointed in terms of POPI.
    12. We undertake to ensure that the personal information which we collect and process is complete, accurate, not misleading and up-to-date.
    13. We undertake to retain the electronic data related to the processing of the personal information.
    14. We undertake to take special care with the customer’s bank account details, and we are not entitled to obtain or disclose or procure the disclosure of such banking details unless we have the customer’s specific consent.
  3. OUR UNDERTAKINGS TO CUSTOMERS:
    1. In cases where the customer’s consent is required to process their personal information, this consent may be withdrawn.
    2. In cases where we process personal information without consent to protect a legitimate interest, to comply with the law or to pursue or protect our legitimate interests, the customer has the right to object to such processing.
    3. All customers are entitled to lodge a complaint regarding our application of POPI with the Information Regulator, whose contact details are available on the Information Regulator South Africa’s website, the web address of which currently is www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/.
    4. The prescribed forms for the exercise of these rights are provided in the schedule to this Compliance Manual.
  4. SECURITY SAFEGUARDS
    1. In order to secure the integrity and confidentiality of the personal information in our possession, and to protect it against loss or damage or unauthorised access, we must continue to implement the following security safeguards:
      1. If we keep any hard-copy records, our business premises where records are kept must remain protected by access control, burglar alarms and armed response.
      2. All the user terminals on our internal computer network and our servers must be protected by passwords which must be changed on a regular basis.
      3. Our email infrastructure must comply with industry standard security safeguards and meet the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
      4. Vulnerability assessments must be carried out on our digital infrastructure on an annual basis to identify weaknesses in our systems and to ensure we have adequate security in place.
      5. Digitally stored data is protected by encryption.
      6. Our staff must be trained to carry out their duties in compliance with POPI, and this training must be ongoing.
      7. It must be a term of the contract with every staff member that they must maintain full confidentiality in respect of customer affairs, including the customer’s personal information.
      8. Employment contracts for staff whose duty it is to process a customer’s personal information, must include an obligation on the staff member (1) to maintain the Company’s security measures, and (2) to notify their manager/supervisor immediately if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the personal information of a customer has been accessed or acquired by any unauthorised person.
      9. The processing of the personal information of our staff members must take place in accordance with the rules contained in the relevant labour legislation.
      10. The digital work profiles and privileges of staff who have left our employ must be properly terminated.
      11. The personal information of customers and staff must be destroyed timeously in a manner that de-identifies the person.
      12. Our team has varying levels of access to personal information and all personal information is protected by Xero Accounting Software, Microsoft and Shopify.
    2. These security safeguards must be verified on a regular basis to ensure effective implementation, and these safeguards must be continually updated in response to new risks or deficiencies.
  5. SECURITY BREACHES
    1. Should it appear that the personal information of a customer has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we must notify the Information Regulator and the relevant customer/s, unless we are no longer able to identify the customer/s. This notification must take place as soon as reasonably possible.
    2. Such notification must be given to the Information Regulator first as it is possible that they, or another public body, might require the notification to the customer/s be delayed.
    3. The notification to the relevant customer must be communicated in writing in one of the following ways:
      1. by mail to the customer’s last known physical or postal address;
      2. by email to the customer’s last known email address;
      3. by publication on our website or in the news media; or
      4. as directed by the Information Regulator.
    4. This notification to the customer must give sufficient information to enable the customer to protect themselves against the potential consequences of the security breach, and must include:
      1. a description of the possible consequences of the breach;
      2. details of the measures that we intend to take or have taken to address the breach;
      3. the recommendation of what the customer could do to mitigate the adverse effects of the breach; and
      4. if known, the identity of the person who may have accessed, or acquired the personal information.
  6. CUSTOMERS REQUESTING RECORDS
    1. On production of proof of identity, any person is entitled to request that we confirm, free of charge, whether or not we hold any personal information about that person in our records.
    2. If we hold such personal information, on request, together with proof of identity as above, we shall provide the person with the record, or a description of the personal information, including information about the identity of all third parties or categories of third parties who have or have had access to the information. We shall do this within a reasonable period, in a reasonable manner and in an understandable form.
    3. A customer requesting such personal information must be advised of their right to request to have any errors in the personal information corrected, which request shall be made on the prescribed application form.
    4. In certain circumstances, we will be obliged to refuse to disclose the record containing the personal information to the customer. In other circumstances, we will have discretion as to whether to do so.
    5. In all cases where the disclosure of a record will entail the disclosure of information that is additional to the personal information of the person requesting the record, the written consent of the Information Officer (or his/her delegate) will be required and that person shall make their decision having regard to the provisions of Chapter 4 of Part 3 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
    6. If a request for personal information is made and part of the requested information may, or must be refused, every other part must still be disclosed.
  7. THE CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
    1. A customer is entitled to require us to correct or delete personal information that we have, which is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or which has been obtained unlawfully.
    2. A customer is also entitled to require us to destroy or delete records of personal information about the customer that we are no longer authorised to retain.
    3. Any such request must be made on the prescribed form.
    4. Upon receipt of such a lawful request, we must comply as soon as reasonably practicable.
    5. In the event that a dispute arises regarding the customer’s rights to have information corrected, and in the event that the customer so requires, we must attach to the information, in a way that it will always be read with the information, an indication that the correction of the information has been requested but has not been made.
    6. We must notify the customer who has made a request for their personal information to be corrected or deleted what action we have taken as a result of such a request.
  8. SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION
    1. Special rules apply to the collection and use of information relating to a person’s religious or philosophical beliefs, their race or ethnic origin, their trade union membership, their political persuasion, their health or sex life, their biometric information, or their criminal behaviour.
    2. We shall not process any of this Special Personal Information without the customer’s consent, or where this is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a right or an obligation in law.
    3. Having regard to the nature of our work, it is unlikely that we will ever have to process special personal information, but should it be necessary the guidance of the Information Officer, or his/her delegate, must be sought.
  9. SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION
    1. We may only process the personal information of a child if we have the consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian.
  10. INFORMATION OFFICER
    1. Our Information Officer is Yusuf Chohan whose responsibilities include:
      1. Ensuring compliance with POPI.
      2. Dealing with requests which we receive in terms of POPI.
      3. Working with the Information Regulator in relation to investigations.
    2. Our Information Officer may designate in writing as many Deputy Information Officers as are necessary to perform the tasks mentioned in paragraph 1 above.
    3. Our Information Officer and our Deputy Information Officers must register themselves with the Information Regulator prior to taking up their duties.
    4. In carrying out his duties, our Information Officer must ensure that:
      1. our compliance manual is developed, implemented, monitored and maintained;
      2. a personal information impact assessment is done to ensure that adequate measures and standards exist in order to comply with the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information;
      3. that this Compliance Manual is developed, monitored, maintained and made available;
      4. that internal measures are developed together with adequate systems to process requests for information or access to information; and
      5. that internal awareness sessions are conducted regarding the provisions of POPI, the Regulations, codes of conduct or information obtained from the Information Regulator; and
      6. that copies of this manual are provided to persons at their request, upon payment of a fee to be determined by the Information Regulator.
    5. Our information officer’s details, which has been submitted to the Information Regulator for publication, are as follows:
      1. Name: Yusuf Chohan
      2. Contact number: +27 10 140 3287
      3. E-mail address: support@safealert.co.za
      4. Physical address: West Lower, Second Floor, Nelson Mandela Square, Maude Street, Johannesburg, 2146.
  11. CIRCUMSTANCES REQUIRING PRIOR AUTHORISATION
    1. In the following circumstances, we will require prior authorisation from the Information Regulator before processing any personal information:
      1. In the event that we intend to utilise any unique identifiers of customers (account numbers, file numbers or other numbers or codes allocated to customers for the purposes of identifying them in our business) for any purpose other than the original intention, or to link the information with information held by others;
      2. if we are processing information on criminal behaviour or unlawful or objectionable conduct;
      3. if we are processing information for the purposes of credit reporting
      4. if we are transferring special personal information or the personal information of children to a third party in a foreign country, that does not provide adequate protection of that personal information.
    2. The Information Regulator must be notified of our intention to process any personal information as set out in paragraph 1.1 above prior to any processing taking place and we may not commence with such processing until the Information Regulator has made a decision in our favour. In the event that the Information. Regulator does not make a decision within the stipulated time periods, we can assume that the decision is in our favour and commence processing the information.
  12. DIRECT MARKETING
    1. We may only carry out direct marketing (using any form of electronic communication) to customers if:
      1. they were given an opportunity to object to receiving direct marketing material by electronic communication at the time that their personal information was collected; and
      2. they did not object then or at any time after receiving any such direct marketing communications from us.
    2. We may only approach customers using their personal information, if we have obtained their personal information in the context of providing previous services to them, and we may then only market similar services to them.
    3. We may only carry out direct marketing (using any form of electronic communication) to other people if we have received their consent to do so.
    4. We may approach a person to ask for their consent to receive direct marketing material only once, and we may not do so if they have previously refused their consent.
    5. A request for consent to receive direct marketing must be made in the prescribed manner and form. The prescribed form of this request and consent is an annexure to this Compliance Manual (See Form 4 below).
    6. All direct marketing communications must disclose our identity and contain an address or other contact details to which the customer may send a request that the communications cease.
  13. TRANSBORDER INFORMATION FLOWS
    1. We may not transfer a customer’s personal information to a third party in a foreign country, unless:
      1. the customer consents to this, or requests it; or
      2. such third party is subject to a law, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement which protects the personal information in a manner similar to POPI, and such third party is governed by similar rules which prohibit the onward transfer of the personal information to a third party in another country; or
      3. the transfer of the personal information is required for the performance of the contract between ourselves and the customer; or
      4. the transfer is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract for the benefit of the customer entered into between ourselves and the third party; or
      5. the transfer of the personal information is for the benefit of the customer, and it is not reasonably possible to obtain their consent and that if it were possible the customer would be likely to give such consent.
  14. OFFENCES AND PENALTIES
    1. POPI provides for serious penalties for the contravention of its terms. For minor offences a guilty party can receive a fine or be imprisoned for up to 12 months. For serious offences the period of imprisonment rises to a maximum of 10 years. Administrative fines for the company can reach a maximum of R10 million. Breaches of this Compliance Manual will also be viewed as a serious disciplinary offence.
    2. It is therefore imperative that we comply strictly with the terms of this Compliance Manual and protect our customers’ personal information in the same way as if it was our own.
  15. THE PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT
    1. Section 10 of the Protection of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), as amended, requires that the Information Regulator make available a guide containing such information that may be required by an individual who wishes to exercise any right contemplated in PAIA or POPIA. This guide must be made available as prescribed to be accessed by the public.
    2. The public records and a description thereof in terms of other applicable legislation of Safe Alert Technologies (Pty) Ltd are available upon request by the interested person and/or party by direct request to Safe Alert Technologies (Pty) Ltd.
    3. To request access to any of the above documents, a description of the subjects on which we hold records or the categories of records held on each subject, a request can be put through to our information officer, whose details can be found at paragraph J5 of this manual.
  16. DESCRIPTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE PROCESS
    1. The following list contains a description of the types of records which Safe Alert Technologies (Pty) Ltd may hold for in terms of its customers:
      1. The name, identity number and occasionally contact details of the data subject
      2. Company documents or similar details of juristic entities;
      3. All statutory compliance records and Value Added tax Documents.
      4. The physical location of the data subjects in relation to delivery of goods and size of the premises for purposed of installation of the goods;
      5. The age of customers;
      6. Receipt and payments
      7. Bank statements and proofs of payment
      8. Budgets
      9. Management accounts
      10. Asset registers
      11. Orders, quotes and invoices
      12. Correspondence
  17. SCHEDULE OF ANNEXURES AND FORMS
    1. Customer’s consent to process personal information – link available on our website.
    2. Objection to the Processing of Personal Information (Form 1 of the Regulations).
    3. Request for correction or deletion or personal information (Form 2 of the Regulations).
    4. Application for consent to direct marketing (Form 4 of the Regulations). SAFE ALERT TECHNOLOGIES (PTY) LTD

CONSENT FORM FOR THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

FORM 1

OBJECTION TO THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION IN TERMS OF SECTION 11(3) OF THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT, 2013 (ACT NO. 4 OF 2013)

FORM 2

REQUEST FOR CORRECTION OR DELETION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION OR DESTROYING OR DELETION OF RECORD OF PERSONAL INFORMATION IN TERMS OF SECTION 24(1) OF THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT, 2013 (ACT NO.4 OF 2013)

FORM 4

APPLICATION FOR THE CONSENT OF A DATA SUBJECT FOR THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DIRECT MARKETING IN TERMS OF SECTION 69(2) OF THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT, 2013 (ACT NO. 4 OF 2013)