The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going to kick up a lot of dust when it arrives on May 25th this year.

If your website and business is not ready for it yet, this is a helpful mini list of areas your website should get sorted asap.

On May 25th this year the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will start being enforced across Europe. It’s a shift in data protection laws that will filter through every aspect of the internet.

If you have a website, that means you too.

There is a certain density to the GDPR laws that make this list recommendations rather than concrete guidelines – the best approach is to work in tandem with your web developer/designer to make sure you are safe.

1) Take steps to talk to visitors about how you are using their data

This is a key point. The legality of consent will be in full swing and the nature of most websites is that at the moment a visitor arrives, they are being tracked. If you run Analytics (and you absolutely should be), you’ve even more to talk about.

But you can turn it into a positive. Show visitors how you use their data (improve their website experience, for example) and offer them the opportunity to remove all of their data from your records. More transparency, less skullduggery.

The three rights that will need to be addressed are a right to access, a right to be informed, and a right to object.

2) Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are going to get run through the mill by the GDPR. If you’ve any mailing lists capturing emails on your site (a Mailchimp widget, for example), means you have to be clearer and more concise with what is happening. Double Opt Ins will become a set-in-stone option, there will be no more messing around with just adding people to lists.

Hate it when people just add you to their mailing list without asking? Well, they can get in trouble if they do that after May 25th.

3) Privacy, Terms and Conditions and Ecommerce Notices

This is all going to need to be rewritten. Some small additions will get you through, but you’ll have to make changes before May 25th, or you could easily get caught out. If you are tracking people through shopping carts, or attaching tags for remarketing purposes, this all has to be made clear and in user-friendly terminology. It can’t be buried under mountain of clauses and jargon.

 

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So what do we suggest?

Take action sooner rather than later. That’s the principle here.

Talk to your developer and see what they have planned for GDPR, or if you’d like, get in touch with us here at Right Track Creative 🙂

All the best and good luck!

 

 

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