GDPR… Are you ready?

We’re lucky.

First of all, we’re able to redo our kitchen and bathroom.

Secondly, while we’re doing it we can cook and wash at either of our mum’s houses.

Thirdly, there’s still plenty of space in our house even though those rooms are out of action, and we do have a spare bathroom on the to floor (although there isn’t a shower in it).

However, it’s still draining to have everything stacked up in your house, making it impossible to clean, and having to cook and carry food across every day.

And I never would have guessed how draining it would be to do that for three months.

We’re only one month in and I’m already knackered.

However, it’s going to be worth it when it’s done!

One thing’s for sure… once it’s finished we won’t be doing any building work for a while. I’ll probably take a year’s break and then start again.

Anyhoo… at the moment we’re working on making sure everything we do is 100% GDPR compliant.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, or just don’t have any email subscribers from Europe, there’s a big changer coming on May 25th.

Anybody you email who is in Europe has to have explicitly requested to receive your emails.

There’s loads of web pages out there, and most are as confusing as each other, but here’s what it is in summary:

Your email subscribers must have EXPLICITLY requested information from you.

That means you can’t buy leads where the subscribers have ticked a box saying that they are happy to have their details shared, unless your company is explicitly stated as who they’ll be shared with.

It means that you can’t use pre-checked tick boxes.

It means that unlike the USA where spam compliance only requires you to allow people to opt-out, in Europe you can be taken to court if someone hasn’t explicitly opted-in.

And not only that… your terms and conditions must explicitly state exactly what and how you’re going to use their data when they give it to you.

What does that mean for you if you’re going to be affected?

1) It means that you need to change your terms and conditions, you can’t bury what you’re going to do with email addresses somewhere in the details, it needs to be under it’s own section and clear.

2) It means that all the subscribers on your email list should have requested to get emails from you. If they haven’t then you need to request it and only email those who give their consent.

3) If you really want to be 100% sure you’re following the rules, all your email lists should be double-optin, although this isn’t a requirement, it’s a pretty easy way to be sure you’re compliant.

Any questions on it, just ping me an email and I’ll do my best to help if I can.

Ciao,

Michael