Zambia Looking Data Tender

Data sovereignty the concept of data being subject to the laws of the country it is located in has long been mired in misconception. Regulatory and legislative uncertainty have fuelled fears around offshore data flows and companies have largely been unsure of the legal recourse if data is stored locally versus cross-border.Legal recourse is essentially what lies at the heart of data sovereignty. In South Africa the Protection of Personal Information POPI Act provides the guidelines for the use of data. Section 72 in particular regulates the transfer of personal information and perhaps its most significant clause is the need for the data subject to consent to their data being transferred.Effectively then POPI doesnt restrict cross-border data flows or storage rather it serves to protect it and facilitate a more secure transfer across borders and penalties for non-compliance are strict. This makes it necessary for organisations to ensure they are meeting all regulatory requirements which can be an interesting conundrum with the growth of cloud-based data storage that increasingly sees data being stored across borders.The European Union is typically a recommended location for organisations whose data is stored outside of South Africa because of its General Data Protection Regulation GDPR which has proved to be a successful way to govern data protection and privacy and is being used as a benchmark around the rest of the world because of how specifically it deals with personal data. Companies are of course subject to the regulations and laws of whichever country their data is stored in so in reality location isnt the most important factor to consider when it comes to data sovereignty. How the data is stored and the way it is handled are the critical considerations for modern businesses.