Definition

POPIA

South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, the national data privacy law.

The Protection of Personal Information Act is South Africa's national data privacy law, in force since July 2021. It regulates how Responsible Parties, companies processing personal data, collect, store, use and share information about people. POPIA is structurally similar to the European GDPR, with requirements covering consent, data minimisation, security, breach notification and individual rights. SmartChat is built to be POPIA-compliant by default.

Related terms

GDPR

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, the EU-wide data privacy law.

Data residency

The principle that customer data is physically stored in a specified country or jurisdiction.

Echo

The proprietary conversational intelligence engine built by Ruka Group that powers SmartChat.