GGPR Compliance & Your Website Privacy Policy

Posted May 21, 2018

By now you may have noticed a slew of new privacy policy updates from a variety of companies in your inbox. You may also have noticed new checkboxes on a lot websites regarding privacy, and cookies acceptance. This is mostly due to new regulations in the European Union known as GDPR

GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation, is a European privacy law approved by the European Commission in 2016. The GDPR regulates, among other things, how individuals and organizations may obtain, use, store, and eliminate personal data. It will have a significant impact on businesses around the world. The GDPR was adopted in April 2016, but will officially be enforceable beginning on May 25, 2018. 

The collection and transparency of private information has become quite an important issue. 

While GDPR is an EU regulation, it affects users globally. There are also laws and regulations currently in effect in the US (ICANN), Canada, many other countries. Addressing your information collection and privacy policies now is just good sense.

A quick internet search of GDPR yields an overwhelming amount of information surrounding these regulations.

As a service to our clients, we are including links to sites we have found to provide useful information. This is NOT an exhaustive list. We are recommending that you research GDPR, and the privacy policy updates needed for your particular business and website.

General GDPR Information

There is a TON of it out there- google it.
Main EU GDPR site- lots of pictures- ec.europa.eu

No time to read? Here’s a free video webinar from Siteground:  What is GDPR?

The latest version of WordPress, (4.9.6,)* released 5-17-18, includes new privacy information, right in the dashboard. Visit Dashboard Settings>Privacy, and Tools to view some of the new changes.
*All KMDD sites are set to automatically upgrade to the lastest version of WordPress.

Read about the new WordPress Privacy update

Website Cookies

A cookie is a text file stored on your hard drive (more precisely in your browser folder) when you visit a website.  All WordPress sites use cookies, mostly to speed up page views for repeat users.  KMDigitalDesign.com uses a plugin that explains the use of its cookies at the bottom of our site.

Read more about website cookies here

If you use Google Analytics

Google Analytics uses third-party cookies to collect information. You should mention that in your privacy policy.

Read more Google Analytics cookies

If you sell products, register users, or have an E-Commerce site

Shopping carts use cookies to save product info. Registering Users also uses cookies to save login info. These should all be listed in your privacy policy.

WooCommerce GDRP info on ecommerce

MailChimp and other third party email collection forms

If you use a form on your site to collect emails for marketing you definitely need to make sure you are transparent about that collection. MailChimp has always had strong rules about that.

Mailchimp GDPR Compliance info

If you use another third-party service, visit their website for info.

Your Privacy Policy (also see below)

Here is an article on how to create one from Elegant Themes.

We are not a law firm and can not compose privacy policies for any of our clients.

We invite you to view our new Privacy Policy. Use the links above to research and determine what is best needed for your business and website. You may wish to consult a lawyer regarding your own business privacy policy.

How we wrote ours:
First we did some exhaustive research about GDPR (this blog post is one of those benefits). Then, we searched other sites that provide similar services to ours and used those to help us compose our own privacy policy statement.

Important info to consider:

  • Tell the user who you are, why you collect the data, for how long, and who receives it.
  • Get a clear consent [when required] before collecting any data.
  • Let users access their data, and take it with them.
  • Let users delete their data.
  • Let users know if data breaches occur.

We run a busy ship!

KMDD schedules all projects and is usually scheduled weeks or sometimes months in advance.

However, to help our clients with compliance, we can to install a Cookie & Privacy plugin on your site. See our example below. 

We can also install a new page with your privacy policy PROVIDED BY YOU, and add a footer menu with a link to it.

We estimate a fee of $50 per site to make the basic additions listed above. The timetable for your update depends on our schedule at the time of your request, However we will do our best to get your new policy up asap and we’ll give you a better price estimate before we make your updates

KMDD has updated its Terms & Conditions to include information regarding these new policies.