Is Your Site GDPR Compliant? | Website Marketing Solutions - SEO & Web Development

It is quite possible that you have been receiving several emails regarding the upcoming GDRP requirement for websites. You may be asking yourself what it means to your business and what do you need to do to comply with it. This email is intended to share with you what I know about it and what I understand to be the requirements for your business. I am also including resources for you to learn more and to take the necessary actions AND also provide you the option for me to help you with this new requirement.

Before I begin I must share this disclaimer. I am not a legal expert, and this information does not provide legal advice. I care about you and your business and that is why I have put this together. If you need

legal counsel, talk to a lawyer. I strongly advise you to research GDPR on your own and consult with a certified legal professional in regards to your decision to make your site GDPR compliant.

I also HIGHLY recommend that you have a conversation with your lawyer. The material that I am providing to you was not created or written by a lawyer. It is a conglomeration of advice and info I’ve collected from various sources and pieced together to what I believe is sufficient for my business. This is not legal advice, and should you use this information, you acknowledge that you are using it at your own risk.

Who This Information is For:

Bloggers and solopreneurs that do not target European Union customers

This advice is not applicable to you if you have employees, target customers in the European Union and work with sensitive data.

What is GDPR?
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU). The reason that the GDPR affects your US based business is because your website can be accessed from around the world including those people from the EU. Here is a great article that I found that describes what it is and what you need really well: https://blogaid.net/tips-tuesday-gdpr-guide/.

What Needs to Happen on Your Website?

1. Update your Privacy Policy

Your website should have a privacy policy. If you don’t currently have one, now is a great time to do so. If you do have one, you will need to update it to make it GDRP compliant. This privacy policy states how data is collected, legal cause for collection, how to request, amend or delete data, and who handles the data. You should also list (and link to their policies) and third-party processors that you use (i.e. Mailchimp, PayPal, Infusionsoft, LeadPages, etc) and who to contact if they have questions.

2. Update or create a Cookie Policy

To refresh your memory, a Cookie is a piece of information that allows tools like Google and Facebook to track who visits your site. Great for marketing – but we need to be really clear and transparent to visitors that we are using it – and give them an option to opt out.

You might be seeing all these notification notices coming up on the bottom of websites. That is what this is. For all you WordPress users you have the ability to add a plugin that will make this happen easily. There are several plugins out there. The one that has been recommended to me that makes the most sense is this one: https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-notice/.

3. Confirm consent from current EU and UK subscribers

If you have any subscribers on your list from the EU and the UK, you must get them to RE CONSENT to receiving your eNewsletter messages. If they don’t re consent, you must take them off your list.

4. Update opt in forms for compliant language

You probably already have clear language that lets your subscribers know what they are getting when they sign up to be on your list or sign up to get your free opt-in. Review and check this to make sure you are super clear about what you are collecting, why you are collecting it and what you are going to do with it.

5. Update all subscribers a to your policy updates

You may have already received these notices. This is one you should send as well after your privacy policy has been updated.

Can You Take Care This Yourself?
Here are some resources that I have found helpful to guide you through this:

Blog Aid: Tips Tuesday –GDPR Guide:
- https://blogaid.net/tips-tuesday-gdpr-guide/
Mythbusting: GDPR for US-based Bloggers
- https://bloggingsuccessfully.com/gdpr/
Blog Aid: WordPress 4.9.6 New GDPR Tools
- https://blogaid.net/wordpress-4-9-6-new-gdpr-tools/
Course by Katie Horner, How to be GDPR Compliant Course For US-based Bloggers and Solo-Preneurs:
- Cost $50 (she has a bunch of checklists and templates_
  - https://bloggingsuccessfully.teachable.com/p/gdpr-compliant/
PlugIn: Cookie Notice by
- dFactory – https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-notice/
Policy Template: https://awbfirm.com/contract-templates/ ($149)

Rebecca, Can You Take Care of This for Me?

Short answer, Yes.

Disclaimer: I need to make the disclaimer again that I am not a legal expert, and the service that I am providing is not legal advice. I put this together because I am concerned about you and your business and don’t want you to get fined because of GDPR. If you need concrete legal counsel, talk to a lawyer. I strongly advise you to research GDPR on your own and consult with a certified legal professional in regards to your decision to comply or defy GDPR.

I also HIGHLY recommend that you have a conversation with your lawyer. The service that I am offering was not created or written by a lawyer. It is a conglomeration of advice and info I’ve collected from various sources and pieced together to what I believe is sufficient for my business. This is not legal advice, and should you use this information, you acknowledge that you are using it at your own risk.

The Details

I will put together for you is what I have created for myself. I will do the following for you and get it installed by end of the day, Thursday, May 25th if paid for and information required send to me by 3 PM Wednesday, May 24th. If you order it after – I will still get it up and going as soon as possible.

An updated Privacy Policy based off a template added to your website with a website link to it
DFactory Cookie PlugIn installed with Cookie notification language based off a template
Verbiage sent to you that you can send to any EU and UK Subscribers in your list
Verbiage sent to you that you can send to all of your subscribers informing them about the updated Privacy Policy
Verbiage for your opt-in forms added to opt-in forms

I will need information from you and will send you a form for you to complete. Once that information is sent I will give you a time frame of when this will be completed.

The cost for this service is $197. Click here to get started.

About Rebecca Metz

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