GDPR Website Changes 25th May 2018 Deadline
The deadline for your website to be compliant with the upcoming GDPR UK website changes is now looming. The regulations come into force on the 25th of May 2018. Is your website ready?
What is GDPR?
GDPR stands for New General Data Protection Regulation. Here in the UK, it will replace the existing 1998 UK Data Protection Act. The purpose of the GDPR is essentially to expand the rights of individuals and their data. In particular, how their data is collected and processed by organisations. Which ultimately will give as much control as possible to people over the use of their data. There are numerous articles online available to help you understand what GDPR is and what you need to do to ensure your website is ready.
Some sample articles can be found on the links below:
https://loyaltymatters.co.uk/website-gdpr-compliant/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/
https://www.hallaminternet.com/how-to-make-your-website-gdpr-compliant/
If your website has a newsletter signup form, it’s likely you are using MailChimp. They have their own guides on how the GDPR changes may affect you here:
https://blog.mailchimp.com/gdpr-tools-from-mailchimp/
Who does GDPR apply to?
In short, almost everyone. GDPR applies to all UK organisations including public authorities, commercial businesses and charity organisations. The GDPR changes don’t just affect your company’s website.
It aims to introduce stronger consent requirements making organisations more accountable for data protection, i.e. how they hold and process consumer data. It also applies to all companies holding and processing personal data of Data Subjects residing in the EU, regardless of the company’s physical location.
Website privacy policy
You will almost definitely have to update your website’s privacy policy before the 25th of May 2018 for the GDPR changes. We have for example updated the Primal Space privacy policy recently to include necessary additions. Free tool-kits are available online for you to help generate an updated privacy policy. For example, detailed in the article below:
https://wewillthrive.co.uk/resources/toolkits-templates/gdpr-build-your-own-privacy-notice
What is personal data?
In principle, personal data refers to any information which relates to an identifiable, living human being. In relation to your website, you will need to outline in your privacy policy which personal data you collect/store/use. Typically types of personal data include the following:
Name
Address
Email address
Photo
IP address
Location data
Online behaviour (cookies)
Profiling & analytics data
Race
Religion
Political opinions
Trade union membership
Sexual orientation
Health information
Biometric data
Genetic data
Next Steps?
If you have website development hours packaged into your website hosting package with us here at Primal Space. Then we can use some or all of these monthly hours to implement any changes to your website that you direct us to do.
Note, we will not automatically make your website GDPR compliant.
You are required to direct us if you wish us to make any changes to your website. This includes but may not be limited to the privacy policy, cookie policy, terms and conditions, SSL certificate, newsletter settings, Google Analytics/Google Tag Manager or any other data collection services, cookie policy pop-up, etc. The list is quite long and it is important you are aware of the requirements for your website. We can’t detail to you what you need to change on your website. As each website is different, each client setup is different. Ultimately we don’t know your business inside out like you do. We don’t know all of the data you may store. It’s really important to read through the articles above. Ensure you understand how it influences your business. There is still time to make the changes to your website if you are not already prepared. Get in touch with us today if you need updates made to your website.