2014-09-18 protection of personal information act readiness workshop

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I presented at the 3rd Protection of Personal Information Act readiness workshop of 2014 on the topic of practical data protection practices. I focused on high level constraints and useful approaches to policy development and data processing strategies.

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2014-09-18

A practical approach to data protectionProtection of Personal Information Act Workshop

2014-07-24

Share your thoughtsYou can find me on Twitter as @pauljacobson

#POPIready

Useful links at http://j.mp/popiready

Key principles and themes

Lawful processing conditions

✤ Accountability!

✤ Purpose limitation!

✤ Purpose specification!

✤ Further processing limitation!

✤ Information quality!

✤ Openness!

✤ Security safeguards!

✤ Data subject participation

Conditions for lawful processing of personal information *

* Subject to exceptions

Consent and data collection

Privacy in a digital world is complicated

“The very practice of privacy is all about control in a world in which we fully know that we never have control. Our friends might betray us, our spaces might be surveilled, our expectations might be shattered. But this is why achieving privacy is desirable. People want to be *in* public, but

that doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to *be* public. There’s a huge difference between the two. As a result of the destabilization of

social spaces, what’s shocking is how frequently teens have shifted from trying to restrict access to content to trying to restrict access to meaning.

They get, at a gut level, that they can’t have control over who sees what’s said, but they hope to instead have control over how that

information is interpreted. And thus, we see our collective imagination of what’s private colliding smack into the notion of public. They are less

of a continuum and more of an entwined hairball, reshaping and influencing each other in significant ways.”

– danah boyd writing in her article “What is Privacy?”

01Consent, justification and objection

“… it seems to be a sensible approach to say that the scope of a person’s privacy extends a fortiori only to those aspects in regard to which a legitimate expectation of privacy can be

harboured.”

– Bernstein and Others v Bester NO and Others

Options

Consent

Legitimate interests

Contractual conclusion or performance

‘‘consent’’ means any voluntary, specific and informed expression of will in terms of which permission is given for

the processing of personal information

Example

Only where consent is required may a data subject withdraw permission

“Legitimate interests” is vague, undefined and, yet, a very interesting justification

“The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the data controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where the

processing is unwarranted in any particular case by reason of prejudice to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of

the data subject.”

– Section 6, Schedule 2, UK Data Protection Act

Still, the “Lawful processing of personal information conditions” provide broad parameters and context for

“legitimate interests” arguments …

01

Special personal information

✤ Children’s personal information!

✤ Religious or philosophical beliefs*!

✤ Race or ethnic origin!

✤ Trade union membership*!

✤ Political persuasion!

✤ Health or sex life!

✤ Criminal behaviour or biometric information

Example

‘‘child’’ means a natural person under the age of 18 years who is not legally competent, without the assistance of a competent person, to take any action or decision in respect of any matter concerning him-

or herself;

How transparent are you?

Write clear privacy statements

Examples

Privacy statement essentials

✤ What personal information do you collect?!

✤ What do you do with that personal information?!

✤ When may the personal information be disclosed and to whom?!

✤ How long do you retain personal information, where do you retain it and what are your safeguards?!

✤ How may a data subject interrogate your databases?

Example

“A responsible party must take reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the personal information is complete, accurate,

not misleading and updated where necessary.”

– Section 16, the Protection of Personal Information Act

Do you facilitate meaningful access to personal information you hold?

Example

Data processing

“Personal information may only be processed if, given the purpose for which it is processed, it is adequate, relevant

and not excessive.”

– Section 10, the Protection of Personal Information Act

Purpose specification

“Personal information must be collected for a specific, explicitly defined and lawful purpose related to a function or activity of

the responsible party”

Be transparent about the purpose

Examples

Further processing must align with the original purpose*

* There are exceptions too

Data integrity and retention

“… records of personal information must not be retained any longer than is necessary for achieving the purpose for which the information was collected or subsequently processed …”

– Section 13, Protection of Personal Information Act

Don’t lose sight of the bigger data retention compliance picture

Electronic Communications and Transactions Act

Protection of Personal Information Act

Everything else

POPI places special emphasis on security safeguards

“A responsible party must secure the integrity and confidentiality of personal information in its possession or

under its control by taking appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures …”

– Section 19, Protection of Personal Information Act

Examples

“A responsible party must, in terms of a written contract between the responsible party and the operator, ensure that

the operator which processes personal information for the responsible party establishes and maintains the security

measures referred to in section 19 …”

– Section 21, Protection of Personal Information Act

Identifying key risk areas

How do you process personal information?

Helpful questions

Are you the responsible party or the operator?

Is your reputation at risk and what could go wrong?

Do you engage in direct marketing?

Do you process personal information on your responsible party customers’ behalf?

Be responsible, reduce reputational harm risk in the process

Transparent dealings with stakeholders

2014 Heartbleed Bug

OpenSSL exploit came to light

Providers proactively contacted users and recommended password changes

“The way to gain good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear”

– Socrates

Implementation

What are your people actually doing?

What should your people be doing?

What does your policy framework say you do?

01

Communicate effectively with your teams

01

Document your processes and monitor compliance

Thank you for your time.Please feel free to contact me if we can assist you or answer questions.

webtechlaw.com/contact

Paul Jacobson 083 444 8260

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