What is GDPR and Does It Affect My Website?
Online protection extends everywhere
If your website is live online and you think you will have a visitor from the EU (which happens all the time!), then you need to have a GDPR-specific cookie consent plugin on your WordPress website.
Written by WP SiteGenius
August 30, 2024
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GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and are a set of laws based in the EU.
The short answer is, yes. If your website is live online and you think you will have a visitor from the EU (which happens all the time!), then you need to have a GDPR-specific cookie consent plugin on your WordPress website. You also must have a Privacy Policy in place.
Again, this is for any website, no matter your location! You can see what a Privacy Policy looks like here.
To keep your website compliant with GDPR regulations, it’s no longer enough to just have implicit consent by a visitor landing at your website. You’ve seen the cookie bars across most websites asking you to accept or reject cookies. This is necessary for your website too!
There are several WordPress plugins that will provide this for you and they all have lots of installations for a reason. Let’s go through these so you can choose the best one for you!
WordPress Cookie Plugins
If you’re working remotely, especially from coffee shops or other unsecured wifi networks such as the library, then the GDPR regulations specify that you should be using a VPN, or virtual private network. A dependable VPN, such as NordVPN, that secures your internet if you are working on client websites or signing into any accounts that require a password, is essential.
In the WP SiteGenius Business Membership Pro subscription, I have a video where I show you the steps to install the free version of the GDPR Cookie Compliance plugin. I’ll also be adding a new video giving instructions for how to implement the CookieYes plugin — because I use it on my all of my sites!
Although these plugins are needed for cookies and running scripts on your site, according to GDPR regulations you must also have a Privacy Policy that explains tracking and your use of personal data on the website. The GDPR considers personal data broadly so your privacy policy must be specific, including all the details of the user’s rights over their own data.
1. CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent Plugin
I worked with this plugin for years since the GDPR was originally created in 2016. The free version provides everything you need while you’re just starting to grow your business online. As your traffic and number of pages increase, you can subscribe to one of their plans giving you more options such as geo-targeting.
Although you don’t have to, if you decide to connect your website with their web app, you’ll see the CookieYes dashboard. They have a robust dashboard that provides you with precise settings for your banner styling, an overview of your cookies so they can be listed in the setting screen for your visitors, and even the ability to add a different default language if your site isn’t in English.
CookieYes also offers both a Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy generator that you can access through your website or through the dashboard, which I recommend.
If you’re looking to replace the CookieYes branding and add your own, you can sign up for one of their subscription plans. Their Basic Plan for small businesses let’s you remove the CookieYes logo and customize it specifically for your business.
2. GDPR Cookie Compliance Plugin
This plugin as an awesome addition to any website to ensure your adherence to GDPR regulations. They also cover California’s privacy acts of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and CPRA (California Privacy Rights Act). Their free version provides the basics for what you need to start your website. They offer color styling so that you can match your website and brand colors. They provide options for changing the text on the buttons and the explanations throughout the cookie consent bar and settings screen. The settings screen allows your visitors to adjust their cookies to all, none, or only essential.
Their premium plugins offers more extensibility such as only showing the cookie consent bar in certain countries through geolocation. If your site is multilingual and you have translations, especially with WMPL, then the plugin works with the .po language files. The premium version also works with multisite WordPress installations.
Written by WP SiteGenius
August 30, 2024
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