GDPR – Helpful sites
-
As the new EU GDPR law (General Data Protection Regulation) deadline for compliance approaches (May 25th 2018), it might be doing a good service to all WordPress.com users to provide a page with links to resources where they can learn more and find out how they can become compliant. Across many sites on the web at this time there is a lot of confusion and quite a bit of uncertainty on what users could do in order to comply with said EU law.
Since that WordPress.com isn’t a legal firm and can’t officially or unofficially provide legal counsel, could provide support to its community of paying users by taking the time to gather a number of resources that would at least point customers in the right direction.I found some sites which share information about GDPR as well as services which will help owners of WordPress sites to try and be in the best compliant shape possible short of of having to spend several thousands by hiring a law firm and have them take care of making them GDPR compliant.
If anyone is interested I’d gladly take the time to select some and share them, if there’s no interest for it I’ll avoid spending additional time on this topic as it might get closed by moderators as it happened on another forum topic where, instead of easing the frustration by heading in the helpful direction of providing a list of resources, it was regrettably closed to further replies without giving a chance to users (myself included) to followup sharing useful information to help address the topic and possibly land on a viable solution.
Cheers.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
No I don’t need help with the blog at the address shown at the end of the previous post. That was automatically (and unwelcomely) added to the post and without my knowledge :)
-
Have you noted the sticky post on GDPR at the top of these forums?
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/about-the-gdpr/This thread is tagged for a staff followup.
-
@freakqnc you’re right; we can’t provide legal counsel. The links in the post @timethief mentioned may be helpful for you though. And we’ll continue to add more information.
-
My 2¢/
Helpful links to understanding the requirements of the GDPR are always useful and they’ve been included in the support documentation here since at least January this year when Automattic updated it’s privacy policy at the same time: https://en.support.wordpress.com/automattic-gdpr/ which now redirects to https://automattic.com/automattic-and-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/ which includes the same links about what the GDPR is and what it requires.
WordPress.com/Automattic is providing users with the tools they need in order to comply with the GDPR. This is mentioned in the various support guides, posts and forum threads. If you have a paid upgrade plan you can request a Data Processing Agreement with Automattic.
I highly recommend following the Privacy.blog, if you are not already, as that is where announcements are currently being made.
/My 2¢
-
Thank you all, these is a far more helpful interaction than the one had on a different thread where I shared my frustration for not having wordpress.com provide at least the option of having a service (in house or provided by partnered/referred/recommended companies) to help users become compliant with the least amount of effort, time and money.
It is unfortunate that WordPress.com has one specific customer-facing moderator who should not be in such position as he lacks of manners and willingness to help and has very limited (to say the least) diplomacy skills. Therefore was very refreshing to see better interactions are indeed possible in the WordPress.com forum. Thanks again for that! :)
The ability to request a Data Processing Agreement is surely a welcome part of of it on the road to compliance, thank you justjennifer! :)
I have found someone who is a lawyer and makes available customizable forms for a fee, but in respect of the rule of not advertising service on the forum topic threads, I won’t post that link… I’ll just share what he states on his website about the documents he provides:
Website Terms of Use
The basic rules of the road for your website visitors… where you set out what’s allowed, what’s not allowed and overall rules.Privacy Policy
Tell your visitors what information you collect and what you do with it… to comply with the GDPR and other legal requirements.Disclaimer
Explain the limits of the information you provide and disclose your financial incentives to avoid lawsuits and Federal Trade Commission issues.Thanks for everyone’s much appreciated help! :)
-
We aren’t able to offer in-house legal advice because of the liability it would put on us. But we’ve mentioned several resources.
If you are looking for a privacy policy to use as a template, for example, our own policy is creative common licensed so you can copy and modify it to reflect your own practices.
-
Hi supernova,
Thanks and I absolutely get it. That’s nicely put and indeed I know and understand as that would be an additional cost. That said partnering with a law firm willing to provide such services could still be an idea as long as you’re free from liabilities. The service could be an add-on for those who would be willing to pay for peace of mind (and I know there are several willing and looking for such services, hence why I asked/proposed such solution to be made available in time.
Obviously that’s up to the CEO/CFO/CTO and whatever acronym will have decisional power on such matters and I never “expected it” out of the box and free of charge.
I want to tank you for your kind reply and additional info, so much of a difference from the moderator who instead of providing the helpful info I’ve gathered from this thread so far, he handled it with a not so nice reply and closing the topic preventing any possibility of further dialog where users would be ask clarifications and info:
“This is not a debate.[…]
[…] you are expecting a service that we have at no time promised to provide, which you are not paying us to provide, and which we cannot legally provide as we are a hosting provider, not a law firm specializing in online privacy law.
I am closing this thread to further replies.”
Not a very skilled moderator in handling frustrated users :) I am glad I didn’t just walk away and opened this topic where I received useful replies by nice members, (other) moderators and staff.
Thank you all, I fee more confident and less confused now! :)
Cheers!
-
If we partnered with a firm to manage all of our users legal needs, that would still suggest that we’re taking on liability, and we can’t do that.
So we’ll ensure that our own tools and practices are GDPR compliant, and we will offer you tools for GDPR compliance, but we absolutely can’t offer legal counsel.
Thanks for understanding! I’ll go ahead and close this thread as well. Cheers :)
- The topic ‘GDPR – Helpful sites’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 