GDPR, short for General Data Protection Regulation, is an European Union law that you have likely heard about. It's a quite hot topic nowadays ...

There are hundreds of articles and sources out there, but most of them are boring and complex content pieces containing a bunch of legal stuff.

It's pretty hard to find a comprehensive yet easy-to-digest guide on how to make a Wordpress site GDPR compliant.

So I've decided to create one. Which is free of any complex legal stuff.

Obviously, is just a practical guide and NOT a legal advice. I'm not a lawyer and NOTHING in this post should be considered legal advice!

With that having said, let's see the first question ...

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).

In plain English: European Union’s GDPR law requires explicit user consent to store personal information, so users can have more personal control on their data stored on websites.

The law became effective on May 25th, 2018 and the EU has put in hefty penalties for those who are not in compliance.

More precisely, businesses that are not in compliance with GDPR’s requirement can face fines up to 4% of a company’s annual global turnover OR even €20 million (whichever is greater).

Which brings us to the next question ...

How GDPR will affect your Wordpress website?

The point: GDPR it applies to every business, large and small, around the world, not just in the European Union. If your site has visitors from European Union countries, then this law applies to you too.

Bu tyou don't have to worry ....

First of all, is extremely easy to make your site GDPR compliant.

And needless to say, there is a whole, well-defined process. It will start with a simple warning, followed by a reprimand. Then a suspension of data processing will occur, and finally, if you continue to violate the law, then the large fines will hit. And no, you won't have to pay €20 million ... That's for Zuckenberg or Larry Page ...



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JerryMcCoy Premium Plus
Thanks for the training.
Jerry
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smartketeer Premium
Thanks for the time Jerry!
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NeptuneSiver Premium
I think I saw a GDPR app in Wordpress plugs in
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smartketeer Premium
Most likely :)
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terrycarroll Premium
This is great Zed and many thanks for sharing.
There are a few "guides" to GDPR Compliance doing the rounds but this one, I believe, covers all aspects of the requirements.
Thanks again and have a great Christmas.

Terry
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smartketeer Premium
Thanks Terry!

Merry Christmas!
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YanFellow Premium
Thanks, Zed.

My site, theme and WP are fully updated (not to Gut, tho) and the comment privacy checkbox does not appear.

I tried the WP GDPR Compliance plugin but it seems overly complex and demands that the user agree to storing theirdetails before it accepts their comment. At least if I've understood it correctly.

Can you recommend a plugin to do the ticky box thing?

Ian
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smartketeer Premium
If you are talking about the comment ticky box thing, most likely your theme overrides those settings and most likely will do it even with a dedicated plugin.

I don't know any free comment GDPR plugin because I'm using a paid third-party commenting solution.

But you could make a search in the WP plugin repository. And if you have a site-wide GDPR consent solution (for example a popup, a footer bar, etc) on your homepage, I'sd say that you are covered.
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YanFellow Premium
Ok, thanks, Zed.

The theme didn't override the WP GDPR Compliance. Now I come to think oif it, I'm sure some other training somewhere said we didn't need it a ticky box for some reason 😱

Argh!

Ian
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smartketeer Premium
The theme handles each Wordpress function separatly. The commenting feature (function) is just one template file ... It will override a specific plugin depending on the targeted function

There are lot of training materials and a lot of experts out there ...

I've made all my research using official sources, so I'm pretty sure that my info is correct Ian.
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YanFellow Premium
I'm sure it is, Zed :-) It's a complex issue and you have laid out what needs to be done.

Thank you

Ian
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smartketeer Premium
Thanks for your time and your feedback!
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rubanzema Premium Plus
What must we do concretely? Are these GDPR not integrated into our Wordpress Websites?
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smartketeer Premium
Have you read the tutorial? All 5 pages?

The answers are there ...
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rubanzema Premium Plus
Good, thank you.
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smartketeer Premium
You're welcome!
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