Top Reasons To Build GDPR Compliant WordPress Website

In today’s technological world, the demand for web technology is expanding day by day. As demand is increasing, unusual data breach and massive abuse of personal data are also increasing. Thus, realizing the outcome of such misuse of data, European Union came forward to toughen its data protection policy by striking GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). According to this new law, any website which takes the data of EU residents will have to comply with this policy. The law affects every company across the world that does business in the EU.

 

These days, WordPress has become the powerful platform for doing online business and it takes the personal data of the user as well. So, it is the time to increase the chance of a huge number of websites getting affected by the General Data Protection Regulation. This new regulation is the right step in ensuring transparency in the handling of data. It provides the users a better control over the way how their personal data is being collected, used and stored online.

 

 

Steps to make your WordPress website under GDPR compliance:

 

If you are selling a product to EU citizens or outside of the EU, then you need to make your WordPress website GDPR compliant to handle the personal data of the user or to create the transparency among the user who is using your website.

 

So here’s how you can have your WordPress site GDPR compliant ASAP.

 

 

• Update the WordPress version to 4.9.6 or higher:

 

WordPress has come to an updated version to make you prepared for GDPR. These updates enable you to create or select your site’s privacy policy page under the setting option. This privacy setting keeps user informed and aware about their personal data. It includes:

 

1. Comment cookies option: After updating the version of WordPress, you do not need to retype their information as by default WordPress stores a cookie.

 

2. Data export and delete: These tools are useful for extracting the personal data. If this data is not important then user can also demand to erase the personal information from the database.

 

• Give the right to be forgotten:

 

Integrate a system that gives the option to entirely delete the data and stop to recollect it. By using this process, users can withdraw their consent at any time.

 

• Update privacy policy:

 

There is an auto-generated policy which you can use but, to use more privacy plugins on your website, you will need to update your privacy policy by including the data being collected on your website.

 

• Breach notification:

 

If you feel that your website is experiencing a data breach then you need to immediately inform the user because data breach may create a threat in front of the user. Hence, under the GDPR compliance, a breach notification should be sent to the user and concerned authority within 72 hours of being aware of a breach.

 

• Detailed data policy:

 

A WordPress site owners needs to keep all the information of user personal data means they need to clarify that at which point they are collecting the data and how the data are being processed and how it is stored in the site owner system. Under the GDPR compliance, a site owner should focus on these things:

1) They must add a detailed list of personal data.

2) They should add privacy information from all installed plugins.

3) They must review and publish the policy.

 

Why is GDPR necessary for a WordPress website?

 

If you run a WordPress website which collects personal data from the European citizen then it is required to get your website for The GDPR. If you do not comply with the GDPR then you could be penalized for non-compliance up to around 4% of Worldwide annual turnover or $20 million whichever is greater.

 

Conclusion:

 

GDPR, the General Data Protection Law which is probably the biggest change so far in the field of data privacy regulation law. In case of any data breach, you will have to pay a hefty fine and other legal actions as a repercussion of failing to comply with this new regulation of data protection.

 

To be the part of the GDPR, you should focus on where you are collecting the visitor’s data and put mechanisms in place to make sure that users can control their data.

 

Author Bio:

Tom Hardy has hands-on experience as a consultant. He currently works at Sparx IT Solutions: GDPR Compliance Consulting Firm and offers exceptional website auditing services to prepare a business for GDPR readiness. Also, he writes informative blogs to let users know how much it is important to comply with GDPR for website and mobile applications to get better data security.