How to Lodge a Complaint
To access this service, the user must first register a user profile on our eService Portal and submit the complaint through the Portal.
General POPIA Complaints
You can lodge a complaint if you believe your personal information has been processed in a way that violates POPIA. These complaints cover general breaches of data protection obligations.
- Examples of What You Can Report:
- Unauthorised sharing or disclosure of your personal information.
- Failure to secure your data (e.g., data breaches, hacking incidents).
- Collection of personal information without your knowledge or consent.
- Unlawful processing of sensitive or special personal information.
- Failure by an organisation to respond to your POPIA rights request (e.g., correction, deletion, objection).
- Why It Matters: General POPIA complaints help protect your right to privacy and ensure responsible organisations are held accountable. By reporting breaches, you reduce risks such as identity theft, financial loss, and reputational harm, while helping to strengthen compliance across South Africa.
Direct Marketing Complaints
POPIA also protects you from unsolicited direct marketing. You can complain if you are receiving unsolicited calls, SMSes, emails, or messages that you did not consent to. These complaints focus specifically on misuse of your contact details for marketing purposes.
- Examples of What You Can Report:
- Receiving persistent spam calls from telemarketers.
- Unwanted promotional SMSes or WhatsApp messages.
- Emails sent without your consent or opt-in.
- Direct marketing communications after you have opted out.
- Organisations using your contact details without permission.
- Why It Matters: Direct marketing abuse is a growing problem in South Africa. By lodging these complaints, you protect yourself from harassment and help the Regulator stop organisations from ignoring consent requirements. This strengthens public trust and ensures your right to control how your personal information is used.
PAIA
A requester or third party may only submit a complaint to the Regulator after that requester or third party has exhausted the internal appeal procedure against a decision of the Information Officer of a public body or head of private body. Should your PAIA request be denied or there is no response from public or private bodies for access to records, a complaint to the Regulator must be made in writing. Should for any reason and circumstance the person wishing to lodge a complaint is not able to do so in writing, the Regulator must give reasonable assistance to the person. You may use and complete the prescribed PAIA form 5 and send it to PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za. The Regulator after receipt of a complaint may either investigate the complaint in the prescribed manner or refer the complaint to the Enforcement Committee. it may also decide to take no action on complaint if the case requires no further action. The Regulator must also as soon as reasonably possible after receipt of a complaint, advise the complainant and information officer or head of a private body to whom the complaint relates on the course of action that the Regulator proposes. Should your PAIA request be denied or there is no response from a public or private bodies for access to records you may use complete the prescribed form and send it PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za