Most companies in South Africa already received the message on POPI (Protection Of Personal Information) Act, to be implemented this year.

The POPI Act was signed into law in April 2013, but the South African Information Regulator, the body responsible for implementing the Act and monitoring its implementation, has indicated that the Act will only be in full effect in early 2018. According to the POPI Act, when personal information is collected the person from whom the information is being collected must be made explicitly aware of the purpose for which the data will be used. The data collected may also only be used by the company for an activity or function which relates to the company and its business. Companies can comply with this regulation by adding text to their website, where personal information such as date of birth or credit card details is asked for. This text should state how the company will use the required information. This can be the first, very effective step in protecting an online company. Another important condition of the POPI Act is the safeguarding of the personal information collected. According to Condition 7 of the Act, companies need to determine whether there are any possible internal or external risks to the information collected and also foresee any future threats. From  Gartner latest review of the solutions available in this space it is evident email archiving alone is not the answer anymore, The top solutions now focus on much more than email alone.

• Voice (Landlines and Cell Phones) Financial institutions record all voice conversations, and this information should be recalled on request.
• Social Media More and more information is available on Social Media. It is the companies responsibility to be able to recall any discussion or posts done though their social channels.
• Instant Messaging (IM) IM is replacing traditional email at an alarming rate and it is a business enabling tool allowing for faster secure communication between individuals. Products like Slack, Facebook messages etc are now business tools and therefor will also need to be part of an archive strategy.
• Web Archive Why Web? Well the answer is easy - Content management systems brings life to your website and this also means information changes every second. What will you do if you need to resolve a dispute of something you published; Will you be able to recall the specific information / web page.
• Email Yes no secret there this is where it all started, and will continue to be important for companies to recover information send and received by their staff.

Looking at all the different data-sources to archive, the key here is to have a solution able to cover all of the above in one solution. The reason is easy, you will need to search for the information across all the platforms at the same time to save you time. So spend time to make sure your selection of a solution covers all your need, is in one.