All you need to know about WP GDPR Compliance

Introduction 

In this highly evolving world, keeping your website GDPR-compliant has become necessary. People from all over the world might trust your website to put in their details. It becomes a prime act of any website to safeguard its customers in all terms. 

The GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a law enforced by the European Union for European citizens. But soon, they made this act applicable to world businesses. What this means is that a WP GDPR Compliance website keeps its users' data highly secured and gives consent before any further sharing. Amazing, right? This eventually makes users' details safer on whichever website they are on. So, if you want to know how you can make your website GDPR-compliant, this blog is for you. 

What is GDPR Compliance?

The GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation and is a European Union law explicit in May 2018. According to this law, the EU is rewarded with control over their data along with changing the data privacy among world organizations. However, this law is not just applicable to European citizens; they made it for world businesses. 

As a business owner, you must have gotten dozens of emails to comply with this law from Google. This is because every business should comply with the new policies and other legal stuff. Any company that hasn’t collaborated with the GDPR may face big penalties in the future. This is why the EU has made strict laws against not integrating with GDPR compliance. Fines may be charged up to 4% of a company’s annual business turnover, which can affect a lot of revenue. 

What is CCPA? 

Just like the GDPR, CCPA stands for California Consumer Privacy Act, which was adhered to by Californian citizens only. This privacy law was enforced for Californian citizens from January 1, 2020, to protect their details. According to this law, every Californian citizen has the right to know which personal details are being collected about them. Also, it lets them request the deletion along with opting out of the sale of their data.

This is what helps them protect their sensitive details from bumping out. 

Is GDPR Applicable to Every WordPress Website? 

As said, the WP GDPR Compliance rule does not just apply to European businesses or residents, but they have made for world businesses too. The answer is yes; GDPR applies to every small and large business all over the world. 

Also, if your business website has European clients, then GDPR is also applicable to you. But this doesn’t mean you will be charged with a huge fine. This is not a direct attack that your business may face a huge loss.

It first warns you about the law, then a reprimand, and then comes the suspension of data processing. Even after this, if you continue to violate the rules, a high penalty is charged. 

While this is not an evil act when broken, it is charged with a higher penalty. This is just an act to protect the customers that trust and be a part of your business. The aim is to protect and safeguard those customers and keep them away from their data breaches. 

This smart act charges a huge penalty just to make large companies like Facebook and Google attentive to the customer’s privacy. With GDPR, it helps put more effort into protecting customer data at a professional level, and no regulation is ignored. 

Once you are aware of the GDPR Act and its spirit to protect people's data, you will understand its importance.

What is Required for Website Owners Under the GDPR? 

You know how mandatory it becomes to have a GDPR-compliant website. This helps in protecting the user's personally identifying information to a safer extent. Even this becomes a prime task for businesses to professionally collect, handle, or use the data, keeping the privacy standards higher. 

Now personal data can be in the form of user name, email address, IP address, physical addresses, health details, income, and more. Not only this, there is a complete book of 200 pages surrounded by the laws of WP GDPR Compliance. Of those, we are presenting the most vital guidelines for you: 

1. Gaining Explicit Consent to Collect Personal Information 

It is highly advised for businesses collecting data from EU residents to get permission or consent before asking for it. Simply put, it is highly prohibited to send unsolicited emails to those who gave you their business cards or filled out your website form. It may be considered spam; instead, you should ask them to subscribe to your newsletter. 

2. The Users Have the Right to Their Personal Information 

The second most important consent that should be embarked on is that users must know how, where, and why their data is used. Simply put, an individual is getting the right to download their data along with the right to forget it. 

When an individual unsubscribes from your newsletter, they hold the right you delete their complete details. You need to delete their complete information when they ask for deletion or unsubscribe. 

3. Provide Prompt Data Breach Notifications 

In case of any data breaches, the organizations must report to the upper authorities within 72 hours to avoid any higher risk. This should be done even when the breach is at lower risk or harmless to the individuals. But when it reaches higher risk, make sure you are informing the individuals who are impacted by this. 

4. Need to Appoint a Data Protection Officer 

Some organizations or companies hold huge amounts of personal information. In this case, it is highly advised to appoint a data protection officer. This is not much required for small businesses but for those with large data.

 Concluding all the above pinpoints, the first one is that GDPR ensures that businesses can’t send personal emails to customers without explicit consent. Businesses should erase users' accounts or personal information after they unsubscribe from email lists or ask for it. Even businesses need to report to the upper authorities and users about data breaches or threats. 

Now, this was about normalized businesses and their relevance to GDPR compliance. The prime question is, is WordPress GDPR compliant? We will discuss this further. 

Is WordPress GDPR-compliant? 

Let’s be clear: WordPress is GDPR compliant since its version 4.9.6 was released on May 17, 2018. 

But note that here we are talking about WordPress.org, which is self-hosted and not like WordPress.com. With that said, it depends on the type of WordPress website you own. No website is 100% WP GDPR Compliance due to the dynamic nature of the WordPress website. Therefore, no single website, plugin, or solution is 100% GDPR-compliant. It mainly depends on the type of website you own, the data you store, and the data that is being processed. 

Here are some of the best WordPress GDPR tools you might not know: 

1. Comments Consent Checkbox 

Until the GDPR compliance or cookie compliance hit the WordPress platform, WordPress would store the commenter’s name, email, and website. This information was stored on the user’s browser by default. This was somehow easier for users to comment on any blog as the fields were already filled. 

But now, as per the GDPR consent requirement, the guidelines have changed. It comes with a consent box in the comment form that the user can leave without checking it. This means the user doesn’t want to save the details for further use. In addition, every time you comment or react to any post, you will be required to add details. 

2. Personal Data Expose and Erase Features 

As said, WordPress comes with some tools for WordPress website owners when they need to comply with GDPR and its requirements. These tools are honoured with requests for exporting personal data along with the removal of user data.

These tools can be found under the Tools menu inside the WordPress admin section. From there, you can go to Export Personal Data and Erase Personal Data. 

3. Privacy Policy Generator 

WordPress owns its personalized privacy policy generator with pre-made templates to own. This template offers what to add along with data transparency. This transparency allows users to decide what data should be stored and how you handle their data. 

Additional Areas on Your Website to Check for GDPR Compliance 

Some of the areas where WP GDPR Compliance turns out the most powerful. However, you may want to use WordPress plugins that store or process data according to GDPR. We've listed some of the best WordPress GDPR Compliance plugins in our previous article. So check that out as well.

But it all depends on whether your website is GDPR-compliant or not. And some of the plugins have GDPR-compliant features. Here are some of the common areas that need to be addressed:

1. Google Analytics 

Like you use Google Analytics to get the best insights about your visitors. In short, you might be collecting or tracking data IP addresses, user IDs, cookies, and other data. 

But to be GDPR compliant, you need to anonymize data before the storage and processing. Also, it needs to add an overlay giving notice of cookies and asking for users’s consent before tracking. Both of these queries can be a bit crucial if you are just using the Google Analytics post manually. But it can be done professionally when you have the MonsterInsights plugin. It comes with an EU compliance plugin that makes it much easier. 

2. Contact Forms 

Contact forms are more affected when it comes to GDPR compliance for any website. This needs extra transparency as you are collecting data from the users. This data is stored and utilized for marketing purposes. 

And you need to consider some vital facts you need to consider while putting GDPR compliance on contact forms: 

• You need to get explicit consent from users to store their details. 
• Consent is again needed of users if you are going to use their details for marketing purposes. 
• Make sure you are disabling cookies, user agents, and IP tracking for user forms. 
• Also, you need to comply with the data deletion requests by users.
• In case you are using a SaaS form solution, you need to make sure that you have a data processing agreement with form providers. 

However, all these facts are automatically checked when you are using plugins like WP Forms, Gravity Forms, or Ninja Forms. Using these plugins will evenly store the form entries on the WordPress database. But to integrate with GDPR compliance, you just need to add a consent checkbox.

3. Email Marketing Opt-in Forms 

Email marketing opt-in forms are just like contact forms and contain popups, floating bars, inline forms, and more. Even these are required to have user consent before adding them to the list. 

The consent can be done by adding a consent checkbox so that the user can click before opting in. Or you can add a double opt-in to your email list. Here, you can use email opt-in form plugins like OptinMonster. 

4. E-commerce and Woocommerce Stores 

Those who use Woocommerce for their online stores must comply with the WP GDPR Compliance guidelines. The MonsterInsights plugin is the best one for this. 

5. Retargeting Ads 

Websites with retargeting pixels or ads require users' consent before proceeding. The Cookie Notice plugin seems helpful for this.

6. Google Fonts 

Google Fonts are said to be the customising elements on your WordPress website. However, these are found to violate GDPR standards because of Google logs of your visitor’s IP address. This can be done perfectly by loading fonts locally, replacing them with different options, or simply removing them. 

Some GDPR-Compliant WordPress Themes for you: 

Above all, GDPR compliance can be applied in the best form even when you choose the right themes for it. So, here are some of the best WordPress themes with GDPR compliance: 

1. Multipurpose WordPress Theme 

Here is the first and our topmost consideration that helps all sorts of businesses to handle. This is the multipurpose WordPress that brings on the best experience for every niche you hold. The theme is designed with full flexible and radiant features that bring out the best in your niche website. The structure is made super user-friendly so that even beginners wouldn’t hesitate to bring on their ventures. It's super responsive design is even applicable to every screen size. The theme comes with multiple plugin integrations that make up the most functional design. Apart from this, it features the finest data security features like WP GDPR Compliance, AJAX-powered, CAPTCHA, and more. 

2. Ecommerce WordPress Theme 

Here comes another GDPR-compliant theme that sets a great stage for online e-commerce websites. This premium theme is designed with a world-class structure so that your e-commerce venture can shine. If you are a beginner and looking to take your online store on the web, this is your way. The theme is designed with vibrant colours and clean surfaces that make it look more attentive. Its integration with various plugins and themes also brings out the best functionality. As said, it is powered with GDPR compliance, so users can easily put their details with consent. 

3. WordPress Ecommerce Theme 

The Premium WordPress E-commerce theme is another most dignified when you are looking for WP GDPR Compliance themes. This is something every online store owner should look at while bringing their online stores. The theme is surrounded by the most creative range of templates and plugins, giving the best functionality and appearance. Its unique slider and shop pages are made with ease, so users are free from any complexity. Also, you can find the theme responds evenly on every screen because of its responsive design. 

4. One-Page WordPress Theme 

The premium One-Page WordPress theme is one of the rarest themes with a versatile design you can get for a one-page website. The theme is designed with the full specifications needed for a perfect one-page website. It comes with a range full of enticing templates and creative layouts that bring out the best in any niche website. It works as a multipurpose theme for any niche you are working to design a one-page website. The structure is designed keeping responsiveness in mind so that mobile users can make up with your site. One thing that makes it more powerful is the GDPR integration, keeping users’s privacy on top. Also, some plugins help in boosting the best privacy services for your one-page website. 

5. Mobile App WordPress Theme 

Bringing on another banger theme with GDPR compliance gives the ultimate feel for a mobile app. Websites working with mobile app development and designing can adhere to this theme. The theme is designed with full responsive behaviour so that users can easily catch up with the site on every screen size. It holds the most robust and creative range of mobile app templates that make up a unique website. The theme encloses its tailored range of features that are user-friendly to use. Its integration with WP GDPR Compliance brings the best standards to secure user data and maintain boundaries for it. 

6. Startup WordPress Theme 

The premium Startup WordPress Theme is another most qualified theme when it comes to getting a GDPR-compliant theme. This theme is something that startup businesses should strive for. The theme is designed keeping beginners in mind so they can easily design their online businesses. It also works for any niche or blog website you are looking to build. The theme holds a notch-quality design that brings out responsiveness too. It gives a set full of customizable templates and layouts for your startup plans. Security breaches can be far away when you have this skilled theme for your startups. Its GDPR-compliant feature comes with full user security features that they can put on their details without any hesitation.

Conclusion 

So, that was all about knowing about the WP GDPR compliance. GDPR is the data protection act enforced by the European Union that runs for online businesses. You know it all: user data matters the most when you are stepping into the marketing world. This is where several threats come and user data might get leaked into the wrong hands. To make this secure, the GDPR was launched by the European businesses, but soon it spread to the world businesses. 

Here in this blog, we have made a complete, detailed guide on how you can make your website GDPR-compliant. Also, we have mentioned that websites with no GDPR compliance can face a huge revenue loss. Some areas can be highly affected by GDPR, along with the best practices to make your site GDPR compliant. Along with this, we have brought certain top WordPress themes that are already GDPR compliant. 

To further streamline your website creation process, consider leveraging the WP theme bundle. This bundle includes a wide array of themes that are not only beautifully designed but also fully compliant with GDPR requirements. With built-in features that support data protection and user privacy, these themes provide a solid foundation for creating a secure and legally compliant website. Investing in the WordPress theme bundle ensures that your website is both aesthetically pleasing and aligned with the latest privacy standards, allowing you to focus on growing your online presence with confidence.