Site visitor data is extremely useful information. It allows you to know your target audience better and personalize your marketing activities. However, you should be careful with obtaining data.
On the one hand, there are opportunities and goals that can be achieved through a better understanding of the audience. On the other hand, there is a global law governing the collection, processing, and storage of data: GDPR. And in this matter, business needs to find a golden mean — and we will tell you how to do it.
What is GDPR?
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a data privacy law created in the EU. This is a global piece of legislation. It regulates the collection, processing, and protection of personal data of users by enterprises.
The law is valid since May 2018. It is mandatory to comply. It aims at strengthening the right to privacy and gives users control over the receipt, use, and transmission of their personal information.
The GDPR applies to companies of all sizes. In this case, whether you are an international corporation or a small business does not matter. If the company uses the data of European citizens, it is obliged to comply with the regulations and requirements of the GDPR.
Therefore, every business carrying out activities related to data processing should know what EU GDPR is.
6 steps to help you comply with GDPR
Create an implementation plan
Bringing your data use policy in line with GDPR should start with examining the regulations. The regulations provide clear guidelines for businesses. Here, everything is thought out to the details. Therefore, before you make edits to the pages or current documents available to users, compare them with the requirements of the GDPR.
It is recommended to assess the risks. The task is to identify areas that are already GDPR-compliant, as well as to predict the possible consequences of existing weaknesses. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is appropriate.
It helps you to identify and to analyze the potential implications of privacy risks and concerns for your business and users. Therefore, you will be able to develop a compliance plan. It is also a great anti-crisis move. By developing a plan to address weaknesses in its privacy policy, the company guarantees data protection and prevents a crisis.
Make a processing register
GDPR obliges companies to keep records of all data processing operations. This applies to the controller (the organization responsible for the legality of the grounds for processing) and its representatives. Therefore, you need to understand what data is collected and why. The easiest way to do this is to create a map and describe the information you receive.
It is also important to audit the service and data providers:
- What data do they collect
- How processing and transmission takes place;
- Which supplier is using the data.
This will ensure that the source of information about processing activities is up to date and centralized. Combined with a map, this step provides an understanding of the communication process inside and outside the organization.
Correct consent
Make an automatic pop-up window asking you to read the privacy policy before using the site. The request for the use of the data itself must be very clear.
Make sure the form is accessible and understandable to everyone. Looking at it, the person should clearly understand/distinguish between the approval of the data use request and the rejection. It is important that the user can withdraw consent. Therefore, add information to the form of the procedure for refusing to use personal data.
What should you pay attention to when creating a request form?
- Compliance of the consent process with the GDPR.
- A clear indication of the request. To do this, it is worth updating notices and privacy policy.
- Availability of various and detailed consent options. For example, taking into account the frequency of communication.
Minimize the data used
GDPR aims to regulate the information collected to protect the rights of EU citizens. Think about what kind of data you are collecting and whether it is really necessary. For example, the user’s personal address. If you sell online services, this information is probably not urgently needed.
To be GDPR compliant, companies must adhere to some controlled minimum of such data used.
Eliminate supplier risks
Small business partnerships with other organizations and third parties are common practice. In doing so, suppliers are also involved in various processes. You need to make sure that the companies and individuals with whom it works are GDPR compliant.
The normative document obliges to conclude agreements between controllers and data processors (processors) regarding the issue of information processing. If you can do it, great. But such a task may be difficult. In this case, we recommend:
- Create a list of data providers;
- Determine who is the data controller and who is the processor;
- Develop a plan to ensure that each party is compliant with the GDPR.
Report data breaches
The GDPR contains reporting and reporting requirements for data breaches. This includes situations of accidental or unauthorized destruction, loss, modification, disclosure, access to stored information. If it happens, then within 72 hours it is necessary to notify the affected users about the incident. They need to be aware that their rights are at risk.
Conclusion
Compliance with the privacy policy with GDPR provides significant benefits to the company. First, the level of user confidence increases. Secondly, the risk of imposing fines is eliminated. And they, according to the GDPR, can reach 20 million euros or 4% of the total annual turnover.
At first, it may seem that it is impossible to achieve compliance. However, it is not. A little mindfulness and effort and you will succeed. Even if you have not done this before, then today you can approach compliance by taking care of the following:
- Implement the ability to delete data at the request of the user immediately.
- The legality of the basis for collecting data.
- Provide users with the ability to revoke their data collection agreement.
- Collect the minimum amount of data.
- Transparency with respect to the organizations that collect the data, methods of processing, and purposes.
- Take care of the security measures in place for each automated data processing.
- Transparent policies and procedures for collecting and processing data.
