A guide to validating the structure of South African ID numbers with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) in mind.
The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) is South Africa's data protection law that came into full effect on 1 July 2021. It regulates how organizations collect, process, store, and share personal information.
Important
South African ID numbers are classified as personal information under POPIA. They can be used to identify an individual and extract sensitive information like date of birth, gender, and citizenship status.
When you validate ID numbers, you are processing personal information and must comply with POPIA's requirements. This applies whether you're verifying employee IDs, customer information, or any other use case.
SA ID Checker is designed with privacy and POPIA in mind. We validate the structure of an ID number and decode the date of birth, age, gender and citizenship status carried in the number itself. Here's how we handle data:
ID numbers are validated and the number itself is not written to our database. We also do not store the decoded personal details (date of birth, age, gender or citizenship) read from the number. The validation result is returned to you in milliseconds.
To run your account we keep minimal usage metadata such as whether a check passed, the time it ran and the feature used (for example single check, bulk CSV or API). This metadata contains no ID number and no decoded demographic details.
Because we never store ID numbers or decoded personal details, there is no such data to sell or share with third parties. We do not trade the privacy-safe usage metadata we keep to operate your account.
All communications are encrypted using TLS/SSL. Our infrastructure is regularly audited and follows security best practices.
While SA ID Checker is designed with POPIA in mind, you also have responsibilities when validating ID numbers. Here's what you need to consider:
Before validating someone's ID number, ensure you have:
Only collect and process ID numbers when necessary:
If you store validation results or ID numbers in your own systems:
Be prepared to handle requests from individuals to:
Validate employee ID numbers during hiring with their consent as part of the employment contract, as one input into your onboarding checks.
Validate the ID number as one step of your Know Your Customer process, with clear disclosure of purpose. It does not replace full identity verification.
Check tenant ID numbers during lease applications with consent included in the application form.
Read the date of birth and age decoded from the ID number for age-restricted products, with minimal data collection.
Use this checklist before validating ID numbers:
Start using SA ID Checker to validate the structure of SA ID numbers, with privacy and POPIA in mind.
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