What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU). … GDPR came into effect across the EU on May 25, 2018.

What Is GDPR and Why Does It Matter?

So as a result companies from Europe regardless of where they are doing business have been updating their Privacy Policies and Data Collection policies in order to meet these guidelines.  We have received lots of updates from Joomla and WordPress Extensions in the last few weeks clarifying their changes and compliancy which is a good thing because it means your website is now using software that complies with GDPR…

How Does This Affect U.S. Websites?

Well you may be in the USA but your website is accessible world wide. That means folks from the European Union can visit your website, send you inquiries or purchase products off your website. And the new GDPR guidelines states that if the person visiting your website is in the European Union when they are visiting your website then they are covered by this regulation for general inquiry and data collection.  There must be some form of solicitation by the company to European Citizens (in other words enticing EU visitors to provide their information for a specific marketing purpose).

What Counts as Covered Data?

The GDPR also protects any financial transaction information. That means any company selling products internationally is likely impacted by these regulations.

One Surprising Benefit: Faster Websites

A positive effect, pointed out by my wife Vicki after returning from Europe, is improved website speed. When you visit a website and they are bombarding you with visitor tracking software the websites load much slower. Now with the GDPR guidelines websites have less visitor tracking software and thus load quicker!

Better Privacy, Faster Performance

So basically GDPR provides better privacy for website visitors and faster websites – that sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

Who Needs to Pay Attention?

U.S.-based hospitality, travel, software, and e-commerce companies should definitely review their practices. However, any U.S. company that has identified a market in an EU country and has localized web content should consider reviewing their web operations and what they do with visitor data.

Need Help Reviewing Your Website?

For any company that would like to review your current privacy statements and privacy guidelines be sure to contact me and we can review your specific setup to make sure you are compliant and in good shape with GDPR.