The idea has been in talks for quite some time now. Dating back to 2012, there were murmurs that later became discussions and slowly escalated to big business announcements. Yes, we are talking about GDPR.

What is GDPR?

It stands for the General Data Protection Regulation that the European Union set out, establishing new privacy rules and data management for any business processing sensitive data of E.E.A (European Economic Area) members.

From May 25^th, 2018, GDPR has come out in full force after some four years of preparation. There has been a rise in the number of businesses running solely online in the last couple of years only. It is true that several businesses are still running in physical stores only. Yet, they too are now able to understand that in order to reach out to a wider audience they will need to create an online presence.

It is necessary for your website to be GDPR compliant to ensure that the data your business collects for processing and performing transactions with individuals and businesses is not compromised. It is also important to be transparent with the individuals you have collected data from, allowing them to easily access and review the data you have stored.

What Changes have come with GDPR?

Let us look at the time before the GDPR. the one term that you may remember well would be ‘Big Data’. Big Data has been helpful for companies to dig deeper into customer behaviours and interaction patterns. With GDPR now in place companies, including big investment and financial giants will now no longer be accessing large amounts of data without being totally transparent about what and why they are taking said data. Customers now know they have the choice to opt-in and opt-out of newsletters, alerts, and emails.

How is GDPR Changing Businesses?

With GDPR in place, now data breaches, hacking and loss of data will be few and far between occurrences. GDPR compliance for websites is mandatory for all businesses operating in the E.E.A. All Non-EU based businesses dealing and processing data of E.E.A. citizens must also be compliant with the GDPR to promote a healthy market.

Are you GDPR Compliant?

Here’s a short checklist that can help:

• Keep an up to date privacy policy (What data you collect and why)
• Keep the language concise and easy to understand (no complicated jargon or legalese)
• Make sure your website is secure (an SSL certificate should be implemented on your website)
• Ensure that website users or customers can opt-in and opt-out of mailing lists, cookies etc.
• Keep clear data records on each customer (what data have you collected and when)
• Make it easy for your customers to obtain their data records from you (transparent means of contacting you)

Need help getting your WordPress website GDPR compliant ASAP, contact TAD 360 via our contact form or call us on +44 (0) 161 850 5113 today!