Data protection for member-based organisations

Member-based organisations (MBOs) come in a variety of forms, and while their specific focus areas may be vastly different, there are many activities that they have common.

Whether your MBO is a professional body, trade group, voluntary association, sports team or club, you will undoubtedly process a significant amount of personal information of (or even for) your members. This could be through marketing or correspondence, automated decision-making, or even financial assistance. Depending on your organisation’s specific activities, their very membership could be sensitive information that needs protection.

In order to protect yourself and your members, you will need to know the role that you play in the data protection environment, the kinds of personal information you are dealing with, and how to meet your various responsibilities. This could be as simple as establishing the correct marketing practices, or as complicated as implementing comprehensive information security systems and more.

What laws apply to your processing?

There may be various data protection laws that apply to your processing of personal information, including:

• the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) – if you are based in South Africa;
• the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – if you or your data subjects are based in the European Union; or
• any other data protection laws that may apply to your location.

There may also be other laws that apply to your particular industry. While these laws may not deal with data protection as its primary focus area, any specific data protection provisions will still be relevant.

Will joining this lens help my organisation comply?

Yes. We understand that you may be working with limited resources and budgets. We want to help you in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Our data protection for member-based organisations lens will help you. This lens combined with our practical core programme takes you through the key actions that member-based organisations must take to comply.

This lens is for organisations that exist to serve the interests of their members who may be from a wide range of areas or industries, including:

• professional bodies;
• trade or industry groups;
• voluntary associations;
• sports teams or bodies; and
• clubs.

If you’ve joined one of our core programmes then you will get access to this lens for free.

Our data protection for member-based organisations lens will help you to:

• Get more members by being able to show that you protect their personal information.
• Get the most out of your marketing activities by communicating with prospects or members in line with data protection law.
• Protect your members from harm by understanding what personal information of theirs is most sensitive.
• Add value to members by being able to help them understand your (and their) responsibilities under data protection law.
• Raise your awareness by knowing about the data protection laws that apply to your member-based organisation.
• Protect the personal data quickly by finding out what data protection quick wins you can score.
• Reduce your overall costs of compliance by doing it yourself with our assistance.
• Empower yourself with tools to help you with your compliance efforts by working through the tools section of our programme.

• We have extensive experience in interpreting data protection law for a variety of industries.
• We believe in using the law as a tool to prevent harm from coming to people.
• We have significant practical experience dealing with data protection law.
• We cover only those areas of data protection law that are most relevant to you, saving you time and money.
• We provide insight and simplify the issues, empowering you to work through the obligations yourself.

Our lens will help you to focus on the most important aspects of our broader data protection law as it applies to your organisation, saving you time. You can work through this lens at your own pace and go as fast or slow as you like. Depending on the data protection processes you already have in place, it could take you a few hours or a few weeks to work through this lens.