General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

The law is changing from the 25th May 2018 which will affect your business. The General Data Protection Regulations or GDPR will come into force and while the law is complex and extensive we have listed below some practical advice to help you comply.

1. Update your Privacy Policy

If you collect any date on your customers (including tracking tools such as google analytics) then your privacy policy needs to cover what information you are storing about them and what you might do with this data. The law even applies to things like their computer IP address. In order to comply with GDPR you will need a privacy policy that covers the data you collect and what you will do with it.

2. Email Marketing Consent

No longer can you add customers to your marketing list without express permission. You will need to have a tick box on your registration page, contact page, and checkout page that the customer must tick before you can send any marketing emails to them. You also need to record and keep when they agreed and what was shown when they signed up.

3. Sales Calls

If you make sales calls to someone on the TPS list you're breaking the law and you'll be liable to a fine. It used to be Ofcom who dealt with these matters but now its the ICO and they are much stricter. You can check if a number is on the TPS register at http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

4. Secure Website - SSL

You know the little padlock symbol you see in the your browser bar? That shows whether a website is secure. It technically means the website has an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. If you store any personal data on your website then you must have an SSL certificate. As of October 2017 Google now labels any websites without a SSL as non-secure, so even if your website just has a contact form your website visitors may get a nasty warning which could put potential customers off.  We can add a SSL certificate to your website for just £10 per month.

Full details of the GDPR can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/