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Is your website ready for GDPR?

You might already know the new GDPR rules set to take effect on 25 May and their implications for how your business handles data. However, you might remain unsure precisely how your firm’s website should be tweaked to ensure its compliance with GDPR.

The good news is that tinkering with your website to ensure this compliance does not have to pose any particularly strong difficulties. In this article, we will detail exactly how you can act.

What are the key principles of GDPR?

There are three main facets of the General Data Protection Regulation, to which the European Parliament and Council committed back in April 2016. GDPR is intended to protect European citizens’ data more effectively; hence, this regulation applies to any online business.

Due to GDPR, you must be transparent concerning why you collect data and your plans for it. You also need affirmative consent for data collection, while your site’s privacy policy should be updated.

Look through your existing personal data records

You might have already collected a vast range of data through forms on your website. You need to check that this data complies with GDPR; you mustn’t assume that it is exempt from the new rules simply because it was collected before 25 May 2018.

It is also necessary to discern how and where this data was sourced. This applies even if you used business cards to direct people to your website and, while there, input data through a form.

Edit or post your website’s privacy policy

Whether or not your website currently has a privacy policy page, you should make sure that the site has one if you want that site to comply with GDPR come 25 May.

In either case, you can benefit from this privacy policy template provided by the German Association for Data Protection. The template is available in English and will let you select information relevant to your company. The policy can then be made into an HTML file ready to insert into your site.

Seeking consent to collect data? Always include a checkbox

Each of your website’s forms should have a checkbox allowing the user to specify that they are giving their consent. Fortunately, many website themes let you easily provide a checkbox where necessary. If the theme of your own site doesn’t, you could look for a plugin that provides this functionality.

If your site is built on a WordPress template, your searching technique can be as simple as searching WordPress with the term “GDPR” and selecting the plugin compatible with your site and its theme.

Seek GDPR consent from members of your emailing list

From 25 May, you might no longer be permitted to use an emailing list if you are unable to prove that its subscribers, when opting in through a website, were not clearly told the intended purpose of their data and what kind of content they will receive. Furthermore, they will need to have been given the option of unsubscribing. We can further guide you if phone 01325 582112.

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