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Regulation

Privacy, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) information for WordPress bloggers.

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This is a short post with General Privacy, Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) information for WordPress bloggers.

Note: This is not legal advice, just late minute information on current opinions and facts around GDPR.

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Facebook, Google, Whatsapp and Instagram are facing lawsuits for failing to comply with GDPR, Europe’s sweeping new data protection law.

It is GPRD Compliance Eve and there are loads of last-minute GDPR activity.

Official European Commission resources on GRDP

Some US News sites are blocking Europeans

Legal Teams are up late

First Lawsuits are filed

Should you panic?

No.

If you want a good summary for GDPR for bloggers – does it apply to you and how to comply then read this.

Also, Wikipedia has a good article.

wpbeginner.com has an Ultimate Guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – Everything You Need to Know

Read wpbeginners.com’s summary of what GDPR is?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law taking effect on May 25, 2018. The goal of GDPR is to give EU citizens control over their personal data and change the data privacy approach of organizations across the world.

Are there fines?

Basically after May 25th, 2018, businesses that are not in compliance with GDPR’s requirement can face large fines up to 4% of a company’s annual global revenue OR €20 million (whichever is greater). This is enough reason to cause wide-spread panic among businesses around the world.

First, there will be warnings, then reprimands then Suspension then Fines and more.

Does GDPR apply to my WordPress site?

The answer is YES. It applies to every business, large and small, around the world (not just in the European Union).

If your website has visitors from European Union countries, then this law applies to you.

But don’t panic, this isn’t the end of the world.

While GDPR has the potential to escalate to those high level of fines, it will start with a warning, then a reprimand, then a suspension of data processing, and if you continue to violate the law, then the large fines will hit.

Read more at Ultimate Guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – Everything You Need to Know

But warning are issued before fines are given.

What can you do?

But the takeaway is, don’t create a website (then be lazy) and abuse users private data or be lazy with security.

My blog hosts (Vultr) GDPR information

Vultr GDPR

I instaled a GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin

I used the WP-CLI plugin install GDPR Cookie plugin for the command line. View the developer site here.

I then activated the plugin and configured it.

Configure COokie Concent Plugin

Cookie bot also has a great page on GDRP here.

I edited the following Privacy/GDRP placeholder files.

cd /www-root
# Made a reject cookies placeholder
sudo nano rejectcookies.html

# Made a privacy placeholder
sudo nano privacy.html

I should have skipped creating a privacy.htm page as WordPress v4.9.6 has a Privacy Page Generator. Nice

Create Privacy Page

Goto tour sites Dashboard, click Settings then Privacy. Create a new page, fill in the blanks and publish it.

Privacy Page Generator

I read MailChimp GDPR Advice as I had a few lists with private data

More to come. Let’s get back to those GDPR emails

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.1 Cookie Bot GDPR Link

v1.0 Initial post