General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
This topic has been receiving a lot of buzz because it has an impact on how your website will collect, retain and allow users to manage their personal data. This is not a marketing or promotional issue, it is a legal issue.
GDPR officially took effect on May 25th, 2018. Saffire ensures our website clients meet the resulting legal obligations. As online privacy issues become more important, GDPR is an opportunity for Saffire and our clients to give our users more control over their organizational and personal data.
It might sound like a big deal, and it is, but never fear! Here's what we're doing behind the scenes to help you comply with these new EU standards and what additional steps you can take to ensure your website is compliant!
1) COOKIES
No, not the delicious, chocolate chip kind.
Saffire Version 4.6.5 release includes a new "Cookie Manager" banner at the bottom of your website. Your site visitors can select "Accept Cookies" or manage "Cookie Settings." This is a legal requirement.
If your user accepts the cookies running on your site, they will not see this message again for one entire year. No more banner! Here’s what it looks like:
However, if a user wants to view the site cookies and manage them, they can easily toggle the various categories of cookies on and off to read more about them.
Essential cookies can’t be turned off, they are necessary for the site to function. However, it is a legal requirement to notify users of them.
If a user turns your Analytics cookies off, this will have an impact on your Google Analytics and tracking your web traffic.
Performance and Functionality cookies are in play to help “remember” preferential settings and account details within the website to help speed up performance.
2) EMAIL & TEXT SIGNUPS
We've also updated all of your automatic email and text message signup fields to be a new small pop up window that includes your organization name, giving the user a very clear idea of who is collecting that information and what you plan to do with it.
Additionally, there are several areas of your website that YOU can update to make yourself compliant:
1) PRIVACY, TERMS AND COOKIES
Update your Privacy & Terms to the new Privacy, Terms & Cookies content. We've made it super easy for you, just click the button!
PLEASE NOTE: If you had entered any custom content in your Privacy & Terms, please copy that to a document somewhere first, click the link to update your website to the new default terms, and then add your custom content back in
2) CLARITY OF YOUR FORMS
Make your online forms VERY CLEAR as to why you are collecting personal information:
a) Tell them WHY you need this information
b) Tell them WHAT you plan to do with this information
c) Tell them HOW LONG you'll retain this information
3) PIXELS AND RETARGETING ADS
If you’ve had Saffire integrate a pixel or retargeting ad on your website, there are likely associated cookies in play on your website. We’ll need to be sure your pixels are still functional after the 4.6.5 release, and we should also get together to perform an audit of your pixel and retargeting ads to ensure they are compliant with the settings above. Give your coach a holler if you have any questions or concerns on this!
CONCLUSION:
From Facebook appearing on Capitol Hill, to Cambridge Analytica’s sneaky involvement in gathering personal data, online privacy issues are only going to continue to become more important. You’ve probably already noticed most of the respectable online services you use are forcing similar acceptances of updated privacy policies and cookie settings. Our goal is to provide a clear path to all users for understanding the information we collect, politely, and as unobtrusively as possible. As always, Saffire has your back and we hope you rest assured that you are on the leading edge of personal data protection compliance, without having to do much at all!