On 25 May 2018, the European Union (EU) has started implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This legislation gives more privacy to their citizens by giving them more control over their personal and confidential information.
The GDPR Effect
IT professionals around the world are scrambling to make their websites GDPR compliant. All e-commerce websites operating in the region should comply with this legislation. This may also include those that can be accessed in any EU nation.
Non-compliance to this law can result in a penalty of up to 4% of the total yearly income of your business or EUR 20 million. This is on top of imposing restrictions on your site.
How this Legislation Affects Your WordPress Website
For many people, GDPR stifles marketing activities in the region and around the world. With the enforcement of this law, marketers will have more difficulty connecting with their clients. Many WP Websites and especially WordPress Plugins, that collect user data, are affected by this law.
Web users today will now have more power over:
Data Permission
Before the GDPR enforcement, companies can get data from the submitted online forms. They need not ask for permission from the user filling out the form. After the implementation of the legislation, visitors should give their consent if they want to be contacted. They should click a button or carry out other manual action to give their consent.
Access of Information
Websites should provide their users with more control over the data they provided to the site. This includes the power to access and remove the information they gave. For example, marketers should give the leads the choice of receiving each marketing content (Product News, Invitations or Urgent Messages). In addition, users should be given the ability to unsubscribe.
Data Focus
With this law, data that companies require of their clients will be limited. Companies should now justify the legality of the personal data they collect. Now, questions like “What’s Your Favorite Movie?” may no longer be asked by marketers.
Make Your WordPress Site GDPR-Compliant
The EU is a huge and mature market. No global company would want to stop their operations in this continent. If you’re operating a WordPress-powered site with many European online customers, you should know how to make your site compliant. While the tips below can improve your compliance, you still need to consult with a lawyer for more details.
- Increase transparency in data collection – You can do this by telling users about your company. You should also tell them the information you will collect. You should also specify the nature of the data you should collect from them. Further, you should indicate for how long you keep it and the third parties that will receive it.
- Get consent from users by upgrading your online forms – You should include radio buttons or tick boxes asking your users permission to get their personal information. Moreover, you must include pop-up boxes that state the manner of contacting your customers.
- Allow users to access and delete their data – One way of doing this is by giving your users the ability to change the data they sent you. You can also add an unsubscribe button to your landing pages, emails, and other digital marketing channels.
- Let users download their data – You can do this by providing a copy of the information you gave them in pdf.
- Inform your users immediately if there is a data breach – You can also provide your users cookie notifications that will tell them their online privacy is under threat.
Isn’t there a plugin?
If you want to take care about all those GDPR required laws you may need weeks or months to develop your own solution. So most of the time it’s simpler and easier to just get a WordPress plugin, that will handle this for you.At this point we recommend you our Ultimate WordPress GDPR Plugin for WordPress. Our extension allows you to get compliant within a few clicks.
Key Features:
- Install Pages including Sample Texts with 1 Click
- Easy to Manage Cookie Popup
- Customized Privacy Settings Popup
- Powerful GDPR Privacy Center page
- Integrations with e.g. WooCommerce, CF7 and more
- Data breach notifications
- User data export & deletion process
