By this time next week, crucial elements of the PoPI Act will come into play. While the requirements from the Information Regulator appear to be in a constant state of flux at the moment, for most companies, the scramble is on to ensure they are compliant. Hoping to help those in the dark with regard to compliance is POPICheck from First Digital.
The cloud-based assessment toolkit is designed to help organisations gauge their readiness for POPIA compliance. Given that fines for non-compliance can be as much as R10 million, with jail sentences up to a decade long too, the PoPI Act is something that all businesses should take seriously.
“Some companies are still under the impression that POPIA compliance will not affect them, but this is not the case. The truth is that consumers now have more rights and protection around their personal information than ever before, and organisations are considered to be the responsible parties,” notes Gary Finberg, solution architect at First Digital.
“As a company this would include protecting information about your employees, suppliers, vendors, service providers, business partners, private and public (government) bodies, sole proprietors, traders and juristic persons,” he adds.
The POPICheck tool is available for download on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace or the First Technology’s retail store, with Basic and Pro packages that don’t come cheap at R5 599 and R16 546 for annual licenses respectively.
When weighed up against potential non-compliance fines, however, it may prove worth the investment.
Offering some insight into how the toolkit works, Finberg says the app assesses four critical business areas – Policy and Strategy, Lifecycle and Process, Security, and People. These four areas are aligned with the eight conditions defined in the Act. Each section incorporates specific questions, with three predefined answers apiece. Answers are then weighted and produce an overall POPIA-readiness score per area for your organisation.
“These sets of results are then combined to produce an overall ‘Organisational Readiness’ score. Based on the answers provided, the tool proposes a series of corrective actions for each area, and an overall recommendation for the steps and remediations required for the company to achieve compliance. This guide is also available in report format at any point during the assessment,” he concludes.
First Digital will also be hosting a webinar next week on 30th June to unpack key elements in the PoPI compliance journey. If you’re interested, you can register for the session on Microsoft Teams here.
[Image – CC0 Pixabay]
