Running background checks in South Africa without a clear POPIA strategy is a fast route to complaints — and in the worst case, fines from the Information Regulator. Here's the shortlist every employer should have in place before the next hire.
1. Explicit written consent. Candidates must know exactly what you're checking, why, who processes it, and how long you'll keep it.
2. Purpose limitation. Data collected for a screening cannot be repurposed for marketing, benchmarking or anything else.
3. Data minimisation. Don't collect a full credit report if a criminal check is all the role warrants.
4. Secure storage & retention. Reports should be encrypted at rest, access-logged, and destroyed on a defined schedule.
5. Right to access and correct. Candidates can request what you hold and correct inaccuracies.
PreAppliCheck builds all of the above into the platform by default, so your HR team doesn't have to reinvent it.