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By now, you have probably heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into effect on May 25, 2018. It is important to note that the GDPR affects all businesses, regardless of their size, whether you are a sole freelancer or a global company.
Failure to comply with the new EU regulations can result in significant financial penalties. Therefore, you must take the necessary steps to ensure your business is GDPR compliant.
What is GDPR?
In summary, GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union.
The main objective of GDPR is to give citizens complete control over their data. Businesses hold personal data for various reasons, and the new regulations require them to obtain full consent from the user.
If you have a WordPress website, there are certain steps you can take to ensure that you meet the new guidelines.
WordPress and customer data
Some ways you might collect data from your website visitors include user registrations, contact form entries, and security tools. The new regulations mean that you must be able to provide users with complete transparency about how you are processing and storing the data captured.
GDPR also gives users the right to be forgotten. In this case, they can withdraw their consent for their data to be used and erase any data previously stored.
Consequently, it is best not to keep unnecessary data about your users and to pay particular attention to how and where the information is stored.
WordPress plugin to comply with GDPR
WP Legal Pages Pro is a simple yet powerful WordPress plugin for generating attorney-level legal documents on your website. Using this, you can create your legal documents with just a few clicks—no need to get help from anybody. It comes with 25+ readymade legal templates. It would be best to import the templates, add your details, and publish them. The easy editing features let you edit the details of the published pages any time you want.
The plugin is beginner-friendly. All of its features are well documented. It is easy to install and customize, works well with all the WordPress themes, and gives you free lifetime updates.
Keeping your customers safe
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandates that you regularly assess and monitor your website’s security. This will prevent potential data breaches that could compromise your customers’ information.
It’s recommended that you layer your security measures to increase the security of your WordPress site. Some effective methods for achieving this include installing firewalls, obstructing the login page, and implementing two-factor authentication.
What happens if a data breach occurs?
WordPress, like any other CMS, is vulnerable to data breaches. To ensure your users’ data isn’t copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen, or used by another individual, you need to take the security of your site seriously.
Under the GDPR, affected individuals must be notified within 72 hours of a breach. It would be best if you had processes to account for this possibility.
Failure to meet new regulations can cost EURO 20m, a huge hit to your bottom line. To avoid this, assess how your business handles customer data and implement appropriate mechanisms.
WP Tech Support’s holistic, preventative approach to protecting your WordPress website will make you less likely to suffer from a data breach. Look at our WordPress maintenance plans to find out how we can help improve the security of your WordPress site.