Overview

Documenting processing operations is one of the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information. Documentation is an enabler of data subject rights. A data subject who would like to object to the processing of his/her/its personal information, may wish to understand the current processing of personal information. A data flow map is one of the documentation artefacts data subjects will find useful when trying to better understand the impact processing personal information has on their rights.

Documentation can be an organisational measure that could be used to protect personal information. For example, documented procedures may reduce human error.   

Various tools are available to prepare documentation, spreadsheets being one of the most common. However, spreadsheets fail to provide the formalised, automated process organisations require to properly address the POPIA requirement for documented processing operations. The POPIA platform supports customisable workflows, assignment of documentation tasks.