POPIA – Protection of Personal Information Act
POPIA sets out South Africa’s framework for lawful processing of personal information. It introduces conditions similar to GDPR – such as accountability, purpose limitation, security safeguards and data subject participation – but with its own terminology and regulatory expectations.
GDPR Register helps organisations apply POPIA in a structured, repeatable way, while keeping alignment with broader global privacy programmes.
Built around POPIA’s lawful processing conditions
POPIA requires responsible parties to ensure that personal information is processed lawfully and reasonably, in line with conditions such as accountability, purpose specification, further processing limitation, information quality, openness, security safeguards and data subject participation.
With GDPR Register you can:
- Map processing activities carried out by responsible parties and operators in a central register
- Document purposes, categories of data subjects and personal information, recipients, cross-border flows and retention periods
- Capture security safeguards and information quality measures as part of each processing activity
- Align your records with both POPIA conditions and any overlapping GDPR requirements, where applicable
Records of processing activities
Clear records are essential to demonstrate POPIA compliance. GDPR Register enables you to:
- Maintain a structured processing register for all business units and systems handling South African personal information
- Use standard templates and add custom fields for POPIA-specific needs (for example local legal bases or sector rules)
- Import existing Excel registers and migrate them into a single, maintainable system
- Keep a clear link between processing activities, responsible parties, operators and third parties
Risk assessments and security safeguards
POPIA places strong emphasis on appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures.
With GDPR Register you can:
- Run risk assessments for processing activities that may present higher risk to individuals
- Use a risk matrix to evaluate likelihood and impact, and to prioritise mitigation actions
- Record security safeguards (for example access controls, encryption, monitoring, training) against each processing activity and vendor
- Assign owners and deadlines for remediation tasks and track completion for accountability
Operator and third-party management
Responsible parties must ensure that operators who process information on their behalf act under proper instructions and safeguards.
GDPR Register helps you:
- Maintain a central operator and vendor register, linked to your processing activities
- Track key contractual obligations with operators, including confidentiality, security measures and restrictions on further processing
- Document cross-border transfers involving South African personal information, including applicable safeguards
- Integrate operator risk into your overall privacy and security risk picture
Data subject rights and participation
POPIA provides data subjects with rights such as access, correction and objection, and expects responsible parties to handle these efficiently and transparently.
With GDPR Register you can:
- Log and manage data subject requests in a single register, from receipt through to response
- Link requests to the relevant processing activities and systems so teams know where to find the data
- Record decisions, timeframes and outcomes, creating an audit trail that supports accountability
- Use templates and the AI assistant to help draft clear, consistent responses aligned with POPIA obligations
In short: GDPR Register gives you a structured way to implement POPIA – from processing records and risk assessments to operator management and data subject rights – while fitting naturally into a wider, multi-regulation privacy framework.Thinking