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In this article it is time to “address” one of the parts of WordPress that bothers us the most (at least for me) but that it is also necessary to see, since it is about compliance with an important regulation.
The way I have to deal with it is put myself in the place of those who visit my pagesand demand that said protection of my privacy be complied with.
Today, and in a world as globalized as ours, everything related to privacy and the rights of Internet users has to be taken seriously.
I know that the topic of the Privacy Policy on a website sounds very much like a legal issue, lawyers, an office with a suit and tie… etc.
But in reality it is a fairly simple topic to digest if you know the basic aspects that a good Privacy Policy must have (not to be confused with cookies, that’s a separate topic, for that take a look at the ).
Throughout this article I am going to try to gut this topic a bit, and approach it in a more popular way and without so many Chinese-sounding brushstrokes.
At the end of the article you will find a video where I will explain how and where to place your own Privacy Policy page in WordPress.
Let’s start!
What is the famous GDPR or RGPD?
GDPR are the acronyms that are equivalent to General Data Protection Regulation (or what is the same in Spanish: RGPD – General Data Protection Regulation).
This law was approved on April 14, 2016 by the European Commission, and protects personal rights and data of all citizens of the European Union.
Since May 25, 2018, all websites that are within the European Union (whose servers are hosted within the EU) must comply with said RGPD (if you want more information, you can find what is published by the Official State Gazette (of Spain)).
Therefore, if you have a website that has something that we will see below, you must comply with this RGPD regulation and have a Privacy Policy page.
Do I have to have the privacy policy?
Instead of giving you another ramble explaining why, I’m going to focus more on the what.
To put it in the simplest way: if you save any type of personal data of your visitsyou have to have a Privacy Policy page.
But to make it easier, I am going to mention below a series of web elements that store data about your visitsand if you have any of them in your WordPress, you must have a Privacy Policy page.
But don’t worry because in the next section I will tell you what you have to put, so you don’t get confused.
If you have WordPress comments activated on your website…
When someone makes a comment on any article on your blog, they must give their Name Y e-mail.
From that moment you are already collecting certain information from that or that user.
If you have any type of form on your website
Whether it is a contact form, a participation form, a purchase made on your website (payment form), etc., you are collecting all the personal data that the user decides to give you in the fields that you indicate.
If you have the typical banner, pop-up or similar, asking visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, and they do, then you are already collecting minimum your email.
If your website uses Google Analytics or any other analysis tool
Whether Google Analytics (the most common) or any other type of tool to track your visits and their behavior, you will be collecting private information.
For example, you are collecting which pages they visit the most, from which city and country, the language they speak, the device they use to view your website…
If you use plugins that connect with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
If after viewing the information from your social networks on your website (embedded timelines, the like button on your website, etc.) and the visitor has any type of interaction with said elements, you will already be collecting their personal data (their social profiles) .
We now move on to the more practical part.
We already know that in 99% of cases, your website will need to have a Privacy Policy page.
We are going to see in the next section what you should include (I can already tell you that it is not too complicated,It’s more common sense than anything else!).
What should I put?
I know you think that it doesn’t matter what you put on this very specific page within your website, because nobody reads it.
But there is the double side of the coin.
This page is so important, because whoever reads it is really interested in knowing what it says… and why? Because normally who is so interested… It is because he is angry with you for whatever reason, and wants to look for the legal tickles.
Obviously I can’t tell you exactly what to put, because it depends on your page and what you have on it in relation to the personal data of your visitors or users, but I can tell you what elements you should mention yes or yes, so that you have covered backs.
Clarification: I am not a lawyer or a specialist in property law and data protection issues; therefore, I am not responsible for your particular Privacy Policy page. Everyone is responsible for their own content. This article is merely a guide.
What, in my personal view, a good WordPress Privacy Policy page should include is:
- Tell what data you are collecting
- Tell in what parts of the web said data is collected.
- Tell what purpose has to collect such data.
- Tell how are they collected said data (forms, cookies, etc.).
- If the data collected you give to third partiesyou have to say it.
- you have to have a link to cookie page (check out this article on )
- you have to indicate how long you keep that data (In the video tutorial I explain where you can see this in WordPress).
- You have to indicate to the user who visits you, that at any time he can exercise his right of ask you to delete all data What do you have about him or her?
- You have to clearly indicate who you are, your contact information, tax information (if you are a company) and what is the best way to contact you.
I don’t think I left any. If so, then add it yourself! Each Privacy Policy page in WordPress is different and unique.
However, I recommend that you take a look at the following Privacy Policy pages, to inspire you:
Add privacy policy page to WordPress
Although we are going to see it more carefully in the video of the next section, you have to know that WordPress offers you 3 ways to create and link the Privacy Policy page.
Since recent versions, in a default installation of WordPress there is already a page with a draft status on Privacy Policy.
This page contains a kind of template that you have to finish filling and publishing on your own.
To add that page (or the one you use if it’s not that) to your website, the best place to add it is in the footer.
By creating a specific menu in Appearance → Menus, you can easily add your privacy page.
Add via widget
Here you can choose to use a menu widget in the widget area you want (usually in the footer) or use a text widget and include what we are going to see in the next method.
add manually
Here you can simply add a small HTML code with the link to the Privacy Policy page wherever you want, as well as link the page to the word or words you want using the traditional WordPress method.
This is the HTML code you will need if you decide to use that method:
In this code sample, your page should be found at www.yourdomain.com/privacy-policy.
If you mess up this way, just create a new post, and with the WYSIWYG editor create a link, and copy its HTML (we see it in the video).
Video Tutorial: Creating and Activating the Privacy Policy Page in WordPress
Next, we review everything seen in the article, and we are going to see what WordPress offers in terms of Privacy Policy.
The purpose is to put this page at the bottom of your website (footer) and there are several ways to do it.
Conclusions
As you can see, it is very important to take into account compliance with the RGPD, and have a good Privacy Policy page on your website.
I recommend that you review each of the elements that obtain personal data from visitors to your website, and that you mention them on said page.
Try to make the text easy to read by everyone on foot, with everything organized and clear, and do not leave anything to mention.
In general, it is important that you have everything that includes the cybersecurity of your website up to date, you can see this to make sure that you comply with the regulations, and you are covered from possible hacks.
I hope this article has been useful to you, and see you in the next one!
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Online Marketing and WordPress Consultant with more than 8 years of experience. I create websites with a user experience focused on specific objectives (increase visibility, increase customers, etc.) and I support my clients with their social media strategies and online marketing campaigns.
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