The Protection of Personal Information Act requires every public and private body to appoint an Information Officer and, if necessary, deputy information officers who are responsible for encouraging compliance with the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information, dealing with requests made regarding personal information, working with the Information Regulator and otherwise ensure compliance (as specified in the Regulations and guidelines).
Overview
Information officers are required to have a reasonable understanding of POPIA and PAIA in order to execute their duties. Information officers are also expected to understand business operations, information processing, risk management, internal controls, safeguards for the protection of personal information, and measures that enable data subject rights.
The Guidelines on the Registration of Information Officers recommended that Information Officers and Deputy Information Officers receive appropriate training and keep abreast of the latest developments in POPIA and PAIA
The Certified Personal Information Officer (CPIO®) examination enables candidates to demonstrate their skill and competency in interpreting and applying the Protection of Personal Information Act, related legislation and their knowledge of business operations, information processing, the role and duties of information officers, responsible parties and the Information Regulator, and their understanding of the rights of data subjects, as protected by the Constitution.
About the CPIO® Exam
The CPIO® exam is offered throughout the year and consists of 100 multiple-choice questions that cover six information officer job practice domains created from the job practice analysis.
The CPIO® certification program is developed specifically for those persons who are responsible for compliance or for encouraging compliance with the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information, dealing with requests made regarding personal information, and working with the Information Regulator. The CPIO certification is for all individuals who design, manage, and oversee an organisation’s use of personal information, who manage the risks related to the processing of personal information, who implement the technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, verify compliance or conduct assessments, audits and reviews of the implementation of and adherence to the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information.
While its central focus is the protection of personal information, the CPIO examination will be of value to anyone with responsibility for the processing of personal information.
This certification promotes best practices and provides executive management with assurance that those with the designation CPIO are knowledgeable about the requirements for lawfully processing personal information and are able to ensure that the conditions for the lawful process of personal information are being adhered to.
The percentages below indicate the emphasis of questions that will appear on the exam for each domain:
- Legislation for the protection of personal information (10%)
- Privacy rights of data subjects (10%)
- Conditions for the lawful Processing of Personal Information (25%)
- Data Protection Risk Management (15%)
- Generally Accepted Data Protection Measures, Practices, and Procedures (25%)
- Data Protection Standards, Frameworks, Processes and Practices (10%)
| Legislation for the Protection of Personal Information (10%) — Demonstrate an understanding of the laws and regulations applicable to the protection of personal information. |
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- Understand the purpose of the Protection of Personal Information Act.
- Understand the balance between the right to privacy and other rights, particularly the right of access to information, protecting important interests, and the free flow of information.
- Understand the role of codes of conduct and binding corporate rules.
- Interpret and apply the Protection of Personal Information Act, its regulations, and guidelines.
- Interpret and apply the Promotion of Access to Information Act, its regulations, and guidelines.
- Interpret and apply other legislation that impacts the processing of personal information (e.g., COIDA, FICA, RICA, Basic Conditions of Employment, Cybercrimes Act, Employment Service Act, Immigration Act, Labour Relations Act, South African Police Services Act, etc.).
- Translate legal obligations into data protection objectives and operational practices.
- Understand the enforcement actions of settlement, investigation, assessment, information notice, and enforcement notice.
- Understand the role of the enforcement committee.
- Understand the offences, penalties, and administrative fines that may result from non-compliance with data protection laws.
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| Privacy rights of Data Subjects (15%) - Demonstrate an understanding of the privacy rights of data subjects. |
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- Understand the constitutional right to privacy of data subjects.
- Identify measures that can protect the privacy rights of data subjects.
- Define processes that can give effect to the privacy rights of data subjects.
- Understand the requirements for lawful processing operations.
- Minimize the use of personal information.
- Identify measures to reduce the linkability of personal information.
- Determine how to record the purpose of processing.
- Notify data subjects that their personal information is being collected.
- Maintain transparency through privacy notices and the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) manual.
- Provide information on the right to object or withdraw consent.
- Provide information on the right to lodge a complaint.
- Provide information on the right to receive information about automated processing.
- Provide information on the right to have personal information transferred to another system.
- Provide information on the right to have disputed accuracy notifications sent out.
- Provide information on the right to have notifications sent when information is changed.
- Provide information on the right to receive assurance.
- Provide information on the rights of data subjects and their remedies to protect their personal information from processing when it is not in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act.
- Identify controls for ensuring the quality of personal information.
- Identify measures that protect the integrity of personal information.
- Identify measures that protect the confidentiality of personal information.
- Identify measures that can ensure the availability of personal information.
- Notify data subjects of unauthorized access to personal information.
- Communicate the need for proper records management.
- Understand data subjects' rights regarding direct marketing by means of unsolicited electronic communications, directories, and automated decision-making.
- Understand the procedures used by the Information Regulator to enforce the rights of data subjects, and the process to appeal this enforcement.
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| Conditions for the lawful Processing of Personal Information (25%) - Identify and manage the measures that give effect to the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information. |
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- Comply with the conditions and measures that give effect to the Protection of Personal Information Act.
- Establish accountability for processing personal information.
- Identify measures that can give effect to the conditions when determining the purpose and means of processing, as well as during processing itself.
- Identify responsible parties.
- Define the governance, management, and operational roles and responsibilities for the protection of personal information throughout the organization.
- Establish senior management accountability for the management of personal information.
- Develop data protection management systems
- Implement data protection management practices.
- Define personal information.
- Identify lawful and reasonable processing of personal information.
- Identify the correct legal basis for processing personal information.
- Identify adequate, relevant, and non-excessive processing for the given purpose.
- Identify less intrusive ways to process personal information.
- Identify irrelevant or excessive processing of personal data.
- Determine when the processing of personal information is more than adequate.
- Determine when processing based on consent is valid or invalid.
- Identify measures that enable data subjects to withdraw consent.
- Identify processing with an obligation imposed by law.
- Justify the legitimate interest.
- Identify lawful processing of personal information collected from a third-party.
- Identify lawful processing of personal information held in a public record.
- Understand the collection of personal information for a specific, explicitly defined, lawful purpose related to a function of the responsible party.
- Be transparent with data subjects about the processing of their personal information.
- Prepare privacy notices and statements.
- Process personal information in a manner that is not excessive.
- Understand how data minimisation can be achieved.
- Collect personal data only for specific purposes.
- Request consent from data subjects to process their personal information.
- Limit further processing of personal information.
- Retain and destroy records of personal information no longer required.
- Uphold measures that enforce the protection of personal information.
- Ensure the integrity and confidentiality of personal information.
- Create procedures to dispose of personal information.
- Allow data subjects to participate in the processing of their personal information.
- Prohibit unlawful processing of special personal information.
- Process sensitive personal information only if a general authorisation applies.
- Request an exemption from the conditions for processing of personal information when appropriate.
- Understand the conditions that prescribe the minimum threshold requirements for the lawful processing of personal information.
- Understand the impact of third-party relationships on compliance with the conditions.
- Maintain a systematic record of personal information processing activities.
- Maintain records of consent to the processing of personal information.
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| Data Protection Risk Management (15%) - Identify and manage the risks related to the processing of personal information. |
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- Identify the potential impact of non-compliance on business goals and objectives.
- Identify the potential reputational damage from non-compliance with data protection obligations.
- Design a systematic and structured data protection risk assessment process for the identification of effective safeguards and breach responses.
- Identify all reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to personal information.
- Identify the potential threats from processing personal information.
- Quantify the potential harm to data subjects.
- Classify information assets as being of low, normal and high risk to data sibjects.
- Conduct personal information impact assessments.
- Determine the current state of the measures protecting personal information.
- Identify legal, organisational, and technical vulnerabilities.
- Perform threat and vulnerability evaluations on an on-going basis.
- Identify suitable risk treatment options for internal and outsourced processing.
- Understand how to implement privacy by design and by default.
- Identify and evaluate information security controls to mitigate the risks to data subjects.
- Integrate risk, threat, and vulnerability identification and management into life cycle processes (e.g., development, procurement, and employment life cycles).
- Establish processes to identify and report significant changes in information risk to appropriate levels of management.
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| Generally Accepted Data Protection Measures, Practices, and Procedures (25%) - Identify and manage data protection safeguards to secure the integrity, confidentiality, and accuracy of personal information. |
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- Understand the relationship between data protection and information security.
- Recognize the data processing components that can comprise information security and data protection.
- Determine data protection objectives.
- Design schemes to classify information to manage risk, secure information, protect personal information, and respond to breaches.
- Identify organizational and technical measures for the protection of personal information.
- Identify safeguards to secure the integrity of personal information.
- Identify safeguards to secure the confidentiality of personal information.
- Select measures to ensure the availability of personal information.
- Design a system of internal control to protect information quality.
- Conduct due diligence on the effectiveness of information security safeguards.
- Establish a personal information incident handling procedure.
- Test and refine data protection incident response plans.
- Establish a capability to investigate data protection and information security incidents (e.g., forensics, evidence collection and preservation, log analysis, and interviewing).
- Understand the legal requirements for the transfer of personal information outside the Republic and the protection measures required.
- Identify methods for testing the effectiveness and applicability of information security controls (e.g., penetration testing, password cracking, social engineering, assessment tools).
- Know the procedures for information separation, blocking, deletion & destruction of all generations of copies, backups, and archives for structured and unstructured data.
- Know how to restore the integrity of the responsible party’s information systems.
- Know the contents for written contracts between responsible parties, operators, and sub-contractors.
- Know how to verify that operators who process personal information for the responsible party have established and maintained the required security measures.
- Know how to verify that operators who process personal information for the responsible party have established and maintained the required security measures.
- Know the information security management roles, responsibilities, and general organizational structures.
- Know the notification and escalation processes for effective information security management.
- Know the internal and external breach reporting requirements.
- Know the methods for establishing reporting and communication throughout an organization.
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| Data Protection Standards, Frameworks, Processes, and Practices (10%) - Identify and manage the protection of personal information using formal structures. |
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- Develop goals, policies, strategies, benefits, and other expected outcomes from data protection management.
- Establish a governance structure for the protection of personal information.
- Identify generally accepted information security standards, practices, and procedures.
- Develop and implement a POPIA compliance framework and monitoring system.
- Implement a system for continuous improvement of information security.
- Conduct personal information impact assessments.
- Establish systems to process data subject requests.
- Establish systems to process data subject notifications.
- Establish systems to process personal information breaches.
- Establish systems to notify relevant stakeholders of privacy compromises.
- Implement policies to institutionalise best practices.
- Manage changes when rectifying inaccurate personal information.
- Version control for privacy notices.
- Identify measures to implement privacy by design and default.
- Identify privacy-enhancing technologies and practices.
- Maintain a record of data protection policies, practices, and changes thereto.
- Quantify harm to data subjects.
- Conduct post-incident data protection review practices.
- Develop investigative methods to identify causes and determine corrective actions.
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