During the month of May 2018, you probably saw a lot of privacy policy update emails from all sorts of business flooding your inbox.  That’s because the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the EU countries went into effect on May 25, 2018, requiring any businesses with websites collecting personal data from people in the EU to comply with it regardless of your business location.

Although how to implement many of the GDPR’s requirements is not exactly spelled out clearly, everybody seems to agree that the first thing you need to do is to have a website Privacy Policy.

What is a “Privacy Policy” ?

“A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client’s data. It fulfills a legal requirement to protect a customer or client’s privacy.” – Wikipedia

A Privacy Policy for WordPress Websites

Here is the good news for WordPress website owners! With the recent release of WordPress 4.9.6, they introduced a new “Privacy Policy Page” feature to make it easy for you to create your own Privacy Policy.

Watch short 3 min video on Creating a Privacy Policy in WordPress

ANYBODY who has a website should have this policy page on their site, especially in the light of the GDPR. Your Privacy Policy explains how any personal data collected via your website will be handled. (You might be thinking you are not collecting any personal data from anybody, but it’s quite likely that your website technology is automatically doing it.)

As mentioned above, it is a legal document, and should be prepared under the direction of a legal expert. However, I think many of you might be feeling that you just want to put together one by yourself for now… But the chances are, you don’t know where to start as it’s, well, a ‘legal’ document. Yuck!

Quick Summary

  • You can specify the Privacy Policy page for the site, if you already have one.
  • WordPress helps you create a new Privacy Policy page with a template that you can customize and make it your own.
  • WordPress also provide super helpful Guide right within your website. They break down each section of the Privacy Policy and explain what should be included. Since it’s created with WordPress users in mind, it addresses some great points that many WordPress users should consider incorporating in your policy.

As mentioned in the video, I am not a lawyer, so if you are concerned I recommend that you consult with a legal GDPR expert.   But this is a great place to start to learn more about what you should put in your privacy policy page.

Disclaimer:
Before getting too overwhelmed by all these details, I recommend checking with a legal expert on this before taking any actions.  I am just giving you the information I know. We’re not giving legal counsel here and can’t guarantee that if you follow these steps, you’ll be compliant. You’ll need a lawyer to determine that.

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