GDPR Changes 2018 - Are You Ready?
If you are responsible for handling and managing personal data, you will now need to know and comply with GDPR changes in 2018. GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, was approved in April 2016 and will come into effect on May 25, 2018. It is designed to regulate how personal data is handled across the EU.
What If I Don't Live in the EU?
The GDPR also applies to anyone outside the EU that offers products or services to people who live within the EU. You can check out a list of the EU member states here.
Personal Data: includes IP addresses as well as name, address, email, phone. All customers, clients, and site visitors are affected. Essentially, anyone who provides personal data to you that resides in an EU country.
How Does This Affect The Average Person Running a Website?
Basically, you need to provide a way for people to consent and withdraw consent to use their personal data. Consent must be given in an easy to use form such as an opt-in. Likewise, people must have a way to withdraw consent as well.
Opt-ins: When someone opts into your email list, they are willingly giving you their email address. Be sure to provide an Unsubscribe button. How you handle that information is very important.
Email marketing services: Many of us use services such as Mailchimp and MadMimi. Mailchimp and MadMimi have directly addressed GDPR compliance and is taking steps to comply. Whatever email marketing service you are using, be sure to check with them to see if they are addressing GDPR compliance.
Double opt-in: If you are gathering email addresses using the double opt-in, then each time someone confirms their email, they are providing permission to receive information from you.
GDPR is now a much stricter data protection regulation and failure to comply with GDPR can result in fines and penalties depending on the type of violation.
I've provided many links here for you to check out and I hope this information is useful to you.
Alanna
NOTE: I am not a lawyer and any information provided in this post should not be considered legal advice.
Recent Comments
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Great post Alanna, we are going to be updating folks on this. We are currently going through the process of update all of our policies and terms to reflect this, and we will also be informing folks here on the best practices for being compliant with GDPR.
For many, it will be a moot issue. For others, there will be some updates.
Great to keep the conversation going leading up to these change on May 25th.
Thanks, Kyle. There's been a lot of chatter about GPDR compliance on my side of the pond. I've been contacted by a number of websites recently that are making changes to their privacy policies and asking me to read and confirm my agreement with them which prompted me to write this post. You're right. It won't be an issue for the a lot of us but it's always good to stay informed! Thanks for dropping by! Alanna
Kyle,
Perhaps this is a good topic for Jay to cover in a weekly live training! I know I need more help and clarification and once you guys get everything updated and communicated, the extra clarification would be very helpful! But I wasn't worried as I know you guys are on it and will be there to guide us! Thank you!
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Thanks so much for the information, Alanna:)
You are very welcome, Suzziq!