What is GDPR?
GDPR is the acronym for General Data Protection Regulation. It is an EU (European Union) law that started on May 25, 2018. GDPR aims to give European Union citizens control over their personal data and alter the data privacy approach of establishments and organizations worldwide. Failure to obey this law may attract hefty charges and penalties.
Organizations that are not in compliance with the requirements of GDPR will be charged to pay a fine, which might be up to 4% of the company’s total annual global revenue or 20 million USD. It depends on the greater one.
GDPR applies to WordPress as well as every business (both large and small) all around the world as long as your website has visitors who are citizens of the European Union.
The goal is to protect customers from nonchalant handling of data, such as the customer’s Personal Identifying Information (PII). PII includes name, email, residential address, Internet Protocol (IP) address, income, etc. It also allows companies to lay more emphasis on safeguarding people’s rights.
Some important things to take note of in the GDPR
Explicit consent
When you are trying to obtain personal information from a European Union resident, you must obtain specific and clear explicit consent. This implies that you cannot just send certain emails to a customer just because he or she filled in her email on your website or you have his or her business card. The person must have signed up or subscribed to such an email before you can be permitted to send it.
Right to data
Individuals have the right to be aware of the location, the process, and the reason their data is being processed.
Breach notification
Except the breach poses no threat, you must report harm or risk to individual data, breach of data to appropriate authorities within 72 hours.
Data protection officers
If you are a vast organization that handles a lot of personal data, the need for at least a data protection officer is imminent.
Is wordpress GDPR compliant?
You should note that WordPress GDPR core software is GDPR compliant. It complies and duly follows the GDPR. WordPress 4.9.6 comes with various GDPR enhancement tools. Some are;
Comment consent
Due to the GDPR, WordPress now has a consent checkbox where you are asked if the website is permitted to save your personal data (such as name, email, and so on) when you leave a comment.
However, some themes might fail to display the comment consent checkbox. You can fix this by updating your software to WordPress 4.9.6 and ensuring that you are operating on your theme’s latest version.
Before a fine can be issued to anyone who violated the GDPR, he must have been warned and reprimanded. This regulation aims to restore people’s trust in online businesses and boost customers’ confidence. It will be best for all if this regulation is adopted worldwide.
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