The European General Data Protection Regulation law was passed in 2016 and implemented in 2018. The GDPR law was put into place to help protect users and their data. The GDPR law regulates more than I can write in a single article. Basically, GDPR regulates how websites can collect users data for sites in the EU. If you have users in the EU you have to be able to provide them with and delete any data you have collected.

Shortly after the General Data Protection Regulation law was passed, WordPress provided a great new tool to help WordPress sites better conform to this law. If you go to Tools from within the WordPress admin you will see Export Personal Data, and Erase Personal Data. Another tool that was introduced in the update aids in creating a Privacy Policy page by going to Settings > Privacy. These tools were put into place to help WordPress site owners be more GDPR compliant with a fresh WordPress install.

WordPress Plugins and GDPR

WordPress has given us some basic tools to make sure sites are GDPR compliant. Adding plugins or other third party features can disrupt the tools provided by WordPress. When installing third party items you should always check to see if it will work with the default WordPress tools or if it has it’s own way of handling user data.

General Data Protection Regulation Information

For more information on GDPR check out https://eugdpr.org/ or give me a shout!