Are you puzzled about GDPR and how it will influence your WordPress site? GDPR, short for General Data Protection Regulation, is a European Union rule you have undoubtedly heard of. We’ve received thousands of letters from users requesting that we explain GDPR in simple English and provide guidelines for making your WordPress site GDPR-compliant. This essay will explain all you need to know about GDPR and WordPress.

What is GDPR?

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into force on May 25, 2018. The purpose of GDPR is to give EU people control over their data and modify the data privacy policy of enterprises around the globe.

You’ve probably received hundreds of emails from Google and other firms addressing GDPR, their new privacy policy, and several other legal matters. That’s because the EU has put heavy sanctions on those who are not in conformity.

Punishment

After May 25, 2018, firms who do not comply with GDPR’s requirements will be subject to penalties of up to 4% of their yearly worldwide sales OR €20 million (whichever is greater). This is sufficient cause for widespread concern among corporations worldwide.

This gets us to the key question that you may be wondering about:

My WordPress site: Is GDPR applicable?

The answer is YES. It applies to every firm in the world, regardless of size (not just in the European Union).

You must comply with this regulation if your website receives visitors from European Union nations.

It’s not the end of the world, so try not to worry.

GDPR has the potential to rise to these high levels of penalties. Still, it will begin with a warning, then a reprimand, then a suspension of data processing, and if you continue to break the legislation, you will be subject to enormous fines.

The EU is not a malicious government out to get you. Their objective is to safeguard customers and normal people like you and me from irresponsible data management and security breaches since the situation is spiraling out of control.

This legislation is NOT disregarded since, in our judgment, the maximum penalties are intended to attract the attention of huge businesses like Facebook and Google. Furthermore, these pushes firms to genuinely focus more on preserving individuals’ rights.

Once you comprehend the GDPR’s requirements and the spirit of the legislation, you will recognize that none of this is unreasonable. We will also discuss tools and techniques for making your WordPress website GDPR-compliant.

What are the requirements of GDPR?

GDPR aims to safeguard personally identifiable information (PII) and push corporations to a higher standard about acquiring, keeping, and using this data.

Personal information comprises the following: name, email address, physical address, IP address, health information, and income.

Despite the 200-page length of the GDPR law, these are the most crucial pillars you must understand:

Ownership of Data

You must notify people where, why, and how their data is handled/kept. Individuals have the right to download their data and be forgotten, which allows them to request that their data be removed.

This will ensure that when you click Unsubscribe or request that a company erase your profile, they comply (hmm, go figure). I’m still waiting for my Zenefits account to be erased after two years, and I hope you’ll stop sending me spam emails since I made the mistake of testing out your service.

Notice of Violation

Certain attempts to damage data must be reported to the appropriate authorities within 72 hours unless the breach is deemed innocuous and presents no danger to identifiable data. However, the organization must immediately notify those affected if a data breach poses a substantial danger.

This would avoid cover-ups like Yahoo, whose existence was concealed until its takeover.

Information Security Officers

You must employ a data protection officer if you are a public firm or if you handle big volumes of personal information. Again, small firms are not obligated to have this. Consult a lawyer if you are uncertain.

In basic English, GDPR ensures that firms cannot send unsolicited emails to individuals.

Businesses cannot sell individuals’ data without authorization (good luck getting this consent). Businesses must comply if a user requests account deletion and unsubscription from email lists. Businesses must disclose data security breaches and improve their data protection practices in general.

Theoretically, this sounds very excellent.

You’re undoubtedly wondering what you need to do to ensure that your WordPress site complies with GDPR.

That depends largely on your particular website (more on this later).

Let’s begin by addressing the most often asked question from our consumers.

Regions of Your Website Affected by GDPR

As a website owner, you may use many WordPress plugins that store or process data, such as contact forms, analytics, email marketing, membership sites, etc.

Depending on the WordPress plugins you use on your website, you may need to take additional steps to ensure GDPR compliance.

A significant number of the greatest WordPress plugins have already implemented GDPR-enhancement features. Let’s take a look at a few of the most frequent places you’ll need to address:

Google Analytical Services

Like most website owners, you presumably use Google Analytics to get website statistics. This implies that it is conceivable that you are collecting or monitoring personal information, such as IP addresses, user IDs, cookies, and other data, for behavior profiling. To comply with the GDPR, you must undertake one of the following:

Before storing or processing data, anonymize the information.

Add an overlay to the site that offers notification about cookies and asks users for agreement before tracking.

If you manually install Google Analytics code on your site, doing both of these tasks is tough. However, you’re lucky to use MonsterInsights, the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

Request Forms

If you are utilizing a contact form in WordPress and storing form entries or using the data for marketing reasons, you may need to install additional transparency measures.

Listed below are some considerations to make your WordPress forms GDPR-compliant:

• Obtain express authorization from users before storing their data.
• Obtain users’ express agreement before using their data for marketing reasons (i.e., adding them to your email list).
• Disable form tracking through cookies, user agent, and IP address.
• Using a SaaS form solution, have a data processing agreement with your form providers.
• Comply with data-deletion demands.
• Disable saving all form inputs (a little excessive and not required by GDPR) (a bit extreme and not required by GDPR). If you’re not certain what you are doing, you shouldn’t proceed.

The good news is that if you use WordPress plugins such as WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Contact Form 7, etc., you do not need a Data Processing Agreement since these plugins DO NOT retain your form submissions on their site. Your form submissions are kept in your database.

The addition of a consent checkbox with a clear explanation should be enough to make your WordPress forms GDPR-compliant.

To make it simple for you to add a GDPR consent box, deactivate user cookies, prevent user IP gathering, and disable entries with a single click, WPForms, the contact form plugin we use on WPBeginner, has introduced several GDPR upgrades.

WooCommerce / Shopping Cart

If you use WooCommerce, the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, you must ensure that your website is GDPR-compliant.

To assist shop owners in complying with GDPR, the WooCommerce team has created a thorough guide.

Retargeting Ads

You must get user permission if your website uses retargeting pixels or advertisements. You may do this using a plugin such as Cookie Notice.