New European privacy rules were enforced from 25 May 2018 – the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in English.
The rules apply to all European organizations and companies operating in the European Union. In short it concerns:
- Explicit Consent – Organizations must be able to demonstrate that permission has been granted to collect explicit data
- Right to be forgotten – consumers must be allowed to have their data removed or deleted
- Right to data portability – consumers should be able to take their data with them to another provider
See also “GDPR in a nutshell” from the Dutch Data Protection Authority.
Important for all sites and shops
Almost all WordPress and WooCommerce sites are affected. It’s obvious for shops: you always need addresses to place an order. Which is fine, as long as you explicitly report to the customer that the data will be used to process the order. Automatic subscription to the monthly newsletter is not permitted. This requires a separate checkbox.
If using an “online business card” we often ask visitors to leave their details for a newsletter. There, too, the owner of the site must emphasize the consumer rights, detailing what will happen to data supplied.
What makes it difficult for (WordPress) website and shop owners is that external services are often in use. Think of MailChimp for the newsletter or Exact Online for accounting. Be active in asking such software suppliers how they handle (customer) data or draw up a Processor Agreement together.
WordPress GDPR Compliance plugin
Because every external service (and plugin!) has to decide for themselves how to comply with the rules, it will take a while for this to apply worldwide. For example, it is not self-evident for American providers unless they are aimed at the European market!
Van Ons heeft daarom zelf de gratis WordPress GDPR Compliance plugin in het leven geroepen waarmee het mogelijk is de benodigde checkboxes toe te voegen aan je site. Vanaf januari 2018 ondersteunen we in ieder geval Contact Form 7, WooCommerce en de standaard WordPress Comments. Ondersteuning voor andere (meestal formulieren-)plugins volgt snel. Houdt daarvoor de roadmap in de gaten.
Which is why we have created the free WordPress GDPR Compliance plugin, which allows you to add the necessary checkboxes to your site. From January 2018 we’ve supported at least Contact Form 7, WooCommerce and the standard WordPress Comments. Support for other (mostly forms) plugins will follow soon. Keep an eye on our roadmap for future developments.