The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ruling came into force back on May 25th, 2018. A lot of misinformation has been spread and there are a lot of misconceptions about it.
Everyone from webmasters to website designers needs to know about what GDPR means for them and how they can make their website compliant.
Let’s take a look at what Wix users need to be aware of and how you can prepare your Wix website.
What is GDPR?
First of all, let’s discuss what GDPR is and why you should care. The idea behind the rule is to protect personal data and respect the privacy of all citizens within the EU.
But if you’re from America why would you need to care?
If you do any business with citizens of the EU, you’re also bound by these rules. Any visitors to your website from the EU means you fall under the jurisdiction of these rules. It doesn’t matter if your business isn’t located in the EU itself.
Failure to do so means that it’s quite possible that your website will be made unavailable to users based in the EU.
What are Your Obligations?
Being transparent about you handle data and communicating with people are your primary obligations. In a nutshell, this means you have to be honest about how you handle, protect, and use the data provided to you by your users.
This has to be spelt out on your Wix site in an honest and simple way.
You also have to be able to comply with the requests of your visitors when they want a copy of the data you have. If they request it, you have to provide it.
How Should Your Wix Site Comply with these Requirements?
Don’t just think about how to build a website, think about how you’re going to build a Wix site that complies with these new rules. The punishments for failing to comply are harsh.
Be aware that Wix doesn’t take any responsibility for anything that happens to you or your site because you didn’t obey the rules. This is clearly stated in the platform’s Terms of Use.
You’re responsible for complying with local laws.
In this next section, we’re going to give you some tips on how you can comply with GDPR. It’s not as complex as you might think!
Create a Privacy Policy
Privacy policies will form the core of complying with GDPR on your Wix site. This is the statement that covers which data you gather, how you’re going to use that data, and under which circumstances you will disclose this. Try to keep this clear.
There are plenty of templates online that are designed to cover GDPR. Wix also offers guides on how to create these privacy policies for yourself.
Make sure you cover how you’re going to use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to monitor user movements and any data you’ll be gathering.
How You Will Handle Data
Contrary to what some people have said, you’re still allowed to gather data and you’re still permitted to use it. But you have to have a legal basis for this.
In other words, you have to ask your users for consent. It works in the same way as when you ask for consent to use cookies. Luckily, Wix allows you to do this easily with Wix Forms.
Of course, if you prefer something else, you can install Wix Code and have more customization options. It’s entirely up to you.
Consent to Send Marketing Emails
Getting consent for your marketing emails is something of a grey area when it comes to GDPR. It can be as simple as adding a disclaimer next to your ‘Subscribe’ button. This is known as implied consent and it’s perfectly legal. It’s how the majority of Wix users have complied with GDPR.
Another option is to ask for ‘explicit consent’. This is where you ask your customers directly whether they want to receive marketing emails. The chances are you received a similar email like this from any website you’ve subscribed to in the past.
This is not actually necessary, but many companies jumped the gun with this and sent these emails before it became clear that they didn’t have to.
It’s not recommended that you waste time with explicit consent with your existing customers as it may be interpreted as spam. Plus it’s not legally required.
Last Word – Staying Compliant with GDPR is Easy
As you can see, it’s not difficult to stay compliant with GDPR. All you have to do is be mindful of the requirements and to not panic.
Many Wix users did panic or dismissed it as not relevant to them. It’s relevant and there’s no need to panic. Some simple changes to your Wix site are all that’s required.
Are you compliant with GDPR yet?