You may be wondering though, does this affect me and my business? In most cases, yes it does.
If your business stores someone’s email, or any data for that matter, you must prove that they have given their consent for you to do so. Users must then be given access to the data that you have on them, as well as an option to remove that data. All users must also be notified of any data breaches, especially those that would directly affect their own data.
How will this affect my email marketing?
If your business runs a newsletter that users can subscribe to, you may need to change your process slightly. All newsletters must clearly contain the option for users to unsubscribe, and user’s must first opt-in to receive these emails. This can be as simple as a small form on your company website that visitors would submit in order to receive emails. This method will provide you with sufficient protection against GDPR legislation.
Are there any services that can help me with GDPR compliance?
If you frequently carry out email marketing, then we would definitely recommend creating a Mailchimp account. Mailchimp is a great email marketing tool that allows you to manage your email campaigns and also manage your user lists. In reaction to the upcoming GDPR legislation, Mailchimp have made it really easy to ensure your campaigns comply. This includes the option to apply a ‘double opt-in’. Essentially, this requires the user to complete a two-step process before you can legally use their data.
We hope we helped to shed some light on this new legislation, but if you have any concerns about how GDPR will affect your business, please do not hesitate to get in touch and we can explain it further.