On April 7, 2025, South Africa’s Info Regulator introduced a brand new requirement for organizations to report knowledge breaches—referred to beneath native legislation as “safety compromises”—by way of a web based eServices Portal. The announcement marks a big procedural shift in how firms should adjust to the Safety of Private Info Act, 2013 (“POPIA”), South Africa’s knowledge safety framework.
The transfer to a digital platform aligns South Africa with worldwide developments towards streamlined breach reporting mechanisms. For firms that course of private info utilizing means positioned in South Africa—whether or not or not they’re headquartered within the nation—this improvement highlights the significance of understanding when and the way POPIA might apply. Overseas-based firms that depend on South African infrastructure, service suppliers, or operations to course of knowledge ought to overview whether or not their actions fall inside POPIA’s extraterritorial scope.
POPIA and the Idea of a “Safety Compromise”
POPIA defines a “safety compromise” broadly as any unauthorised entry to, or acquisition of, private info. Whereas this may increasingly sound much like the idea of a “knowledge breach” within the EU Normal Information Safety Regulation (“EU GDPR”), the terminology and authorized framework in South Africa differ in a number of key respects.
Below POPIA:
- A “accountable get together” (analogous to an information controller in EU or UK knowledge safety legislation) is the individual or entity that determines the aim and technique of processing private info
- An “operator” (akin to an information processor) is a 3rd get together that processes info on behalf of the accountable get together beneath contract
- Each accountable events and operators should take “acceptable, cheap technical and organisational measures” to safeguard private info and forestall unauthorised entry, injury, loss or destruction
If a accountable get together has cheap grounds to consider a safety compromise has occurred, they’re required to inform each the Info Regulator and the affected knowledge topics as quickly as fairly doable.
The notification to knowledge topics should embody:
- An outline of the doable penalties of the breach
- An outline of the measures taken or to be taken by the accountable get together to deal with the breach
- Suggestions on how knowledge topics can mitigate potential opposed results
- If recognized, the identification of the unauthorised one who might have accessed or acquired the non-public info
There are restricted exceptions that permit a delay in notification—for instance, the place instant discover would impede a felony investigation by legislation enforcement.
New Reporting Mechanism: eServices Portal
The Info Regulator’s new on-line eServices Portal serves because the official platform for submitting breach notifications. It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not reporting by way of the official platform absolutely replaces using Type SCN1, the Info Regulator’s prescribed kind for manually reporting safety compromises, first launched in 2023, however Info Officers are inspired to submit their stories digitally by way of the portal going ahead.
In accordance with the Info Regulator’s announcement, the portal goals to:
- Simplify the submission course of for Info Officers, a statutory function beneath POPIA assigned to a senior particular person inside a company and functionally akin to a Information Safety Officer beneath the EU GDPR and comparable international frameworks
- Enhance the Regulator’s capacity to watch and reply to breach notifications
- Standardize the standard of knowledge submitted in response to safety incidents
Does POPIA Apply to Overseas-Based mostly Organizations?
Though POPIA doesn’t explicitly present that it has extraterritorial software, its attain extends past South African borders in sure situations. An organization that’s not domiciled in South Africa should be topic to POPIA if it makes use of automated or non-automated means within the nation to course of private info, until these means are used solely for transit via the nation.
The potential extraterritorial scope implies that foreign-headquartered firms might fall inside POPIA’s regulatory ambit in situations akin to:
- Utilizing South African-based distributors or IT infrastructure to retailer or course of knowledge
- Outsourcing HR, payroll, or buyer help capabilities to South African service suppliers
In these conditions, such firms could also be required to inter alia:
- Adjust to POPIA’s ideas, together with safety safeguards and breach notification necessities
- Designate an Info Officer to inter alia function some extent of contact for the Info Regulator and affected knowledge topics
Whereas POPIA shares similarities with frameworks such because the GDPR, together with in its extraterritorial attain and underlying privateness ideas, it additionally incorporates South Africa-specific obligations and enforcement mechanisms. Multinational organizations ought to subsequently assess their publicity beneath POPIA independently and keep away from relying solely on international privateness applications.
Implications and Subsequent Steps
The rollout of the eServices Portal alerts the Info Regulator’s continued efforts to operationalise POPIA and strengthen its enforcement infrastructure. It additionally underscores the expectation that organizations topic to POPIA take a proactive and structured method to managing knowledge breach responses.
For worldwide organizations—notably these and not using a bodily presence in South Africa—this improvement is a chance to revisit how private info from or about South African people is processed, saved, and secured. It could even be a set off to evaluate whether or not POPIA compliance obligations apply, and whether or not current incident response plans account for the nuances of native legislation.
In case you have questions in regards to the applicability of POPIA to your operations, breach notification obligations beneath South African legislation, or broader knowledge governance methods, Covington’s international privateness and cybersecurity workforce is on the market to help.
* * *
In case you have questions in regards to the software of POPIA or broader privateness regulation throughout Africa, please contact Dan Cooper at dcooper@cov.com, Ben Haley at bhaley@cov.com, Deon Govender at dgovender@cov.com, Ahmed Mokdad at amokdad@cov.com, and Mosa Mkhize at mmkhize@cov.com. This text is meant to supply basic info. It doesn’t represent authorized recommendation.
On April 7, 2025, South Africa’s Info Regulator introduced a brand new requirement for organizations to report knowledge breaches—referred to beneath native legislation as “safety compromises”—by way of a web based eServices Portal. The announcement marks a big procedural shift in how firms should adjust to the Safety of Private Info Act, 2013 (“POPIA”), South Africa’s knowledge safety framework.
The transfer to a digital platform aligns South Africa with worldwide developments towards streamlined breach reporting mechanisms. For firms that course of private info utilizing means positioned in South Africa—whether or not or not they’re headquartered within the nation—this improvement highlights the significance of understanding when and the way POPIA might apply. Overseas-based firms that depend on South African infrastructure, service suppliers, or operations to course of knowledge ought to overview whether or not their actions fall inside POPIA’s extraterritorial scope.
POPIA and the Idea of a “Safety Compromise”
POPIA defines a “safety compromise” broadly as any unauthorised entry to, or acquisition of, private info. Whereas this may increasingly sound much like the idea of a “knowledge breach” within the EU Normal Information Safety Regulation (“EU GDPR”), the terminology and authorized framework in South Africa differ in a number of key respects.
Below POPIA:
- A “accountable get together” (analogous to an information controller in EU or UK knowledge safety legislation) is the individual or entity that determines the aim and technique of processing private info
- An “operator” (akin to an information processor) is a 3rd get together that processes info on behalf of the accountable get together beneath contract
- Each accountable events and operators should take “acceptable, cheap technical and organisational measures” to safeguard private info and forestall unauthorised entry, injury, loss or destruction
If a accountable get together has cheap grounds to consider a safety compromise has occurred, they’re required to inform each the Info Regulator and the affected knowledge topics as quickly as fairly doable.
The notification to knowledge topics should embody:
- An outline of the doable penalties of the breach
- An outline of the measures taken or to be taken by the accountable get together to deal with the breach
- Suggestions on how knowledge topics can mitigate potential opposed results
- If recognized, the identification of the unauthorised one who might have accessed or acquired the non-public info
There are restricted exceptions that permit a delay in notification—for instance, the place instant discover would impede a felony investigation by legislation enforcement.
New Reporting Mechanism: eServices Portal
The Info Regulator’s new on-line eServices Portal serves because the official platform for submitting breach notifications. It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not reporting by way of the official platform absolutely replaces using Type SCN1, the Info Regulator’s prescribed kind for manually reporting safety compromises, first launched in 2023, however Info Officers are inspired to submit their stories digitally by way of the portal going ahead.
In accordance with the Info Regulator’s announcement, the portal goals to:
- Simplify the submission course of for Info Officers, a statutory function beneath POPIA assigned to a senior particular person inside a company and functionally akin to a Information Safety Officer beneath the EU GDPR and comparable international frameworks
- Enhance the Regulator’s capacity to watch and reply to breach notifications
- Standardize the standard of knowledge submitted in response to safety incidents
Does POPIA Apply to Overseas-Based mostly Organizations?
Though POPIA doesn’t explicitly present that it has extraterritorial software, its attain extends past South African borders in sure situations. An organization that’s not domiciled in South Africa should be topic to POPIA if it makes use of automated or non-automated means within the nation to course of private info, until these means are used solely for transit via the nation.
The potential extraterritorial scope implies that foreign-headquartered firms might fall inside POPIA’s regulatory ambit in situations akin to:
- Utilizing South African-based distributors or IT infrastructure to retailer or course of knowledge
- Outsourcing HR, payroll, or buyer help capabilities to South African service suppliers
In these conditions, such firms could also be required to inter alia:
- Adjust to POPIA’s ideas, together with safety safeguards and breach notification necessities
- Designate an Info Officer to inter alia function some extent of contact for the Info Regulator and affected knowledge topics
Whereas POPIA shares similarities with frameworks such because the GDPR, together with in its extraterritorial attain and underlying privateness ideas, it additionally incorporates South Africa-specific obligations and enforcement mechanisms. Multinational organizations ought to subsequently assess their publicity beneath POPIA independently and keep away from relying solely on international privateness applications.
Implications and Subsequent Steps
The rollout of the eServices Portal alerts the Info Regulator’s continued efforts to operationalise POPIA and strengthen its enforcement infrastructure. It additionally underscores the expectation that organizations topic to POPIA take a proactive and structured method to managing knowledge breach responses.
For worldwide organizations—notably these and not using a bodily presence in South Africa—this improvement is a chance to revisit how private info from or about South African people is processed, saved, and secured. It could even be a set off to evaluate whether or not POPIA compliance obligations apply, and whether or not current incident response plans account for the nuances of native legislation.
In case you have questions in regards to the applicability of POPIA to your operations, breach notification obligations beneath South African legislation, or broader knowledge governance methods, Covington’s international privateness and cybersecurity workforce is on the market to help.
* * *
In case you have questions in regards to the software of POPIA or broader privateness regulation throughout Africa, please contact Dan Cooper at dcooper@cov.com, Ben Haley at bhaley@cov.com, Deon Govender at dgovender@cov.com, Ahmed Mokdad at amokdad@cov.com, and Mosa Mkhize at mmkhize@cov.com. This text is meant to supply basic info. It doesn’t represent authorized recommendation.
