As a Business Development Manager at LexBlog, I’m regularly talking with new and existing customers. One topic that has come up twice in the last week was about GDPR and what LexBlog is doing as we approach the May 25th, 2018 deadline when GDPR will go into effect.
We live in a world where everything revolves around data. From visiting websites, using an app or going shopping, our personal data is being collected. This is why GDPR was created.
GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation. This regulation is intended to give individuals more control over their data within the European Union (EU). It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU.
Under the terms of GDPR, organizations have to ensure that personal data is gathered legally and under strict conditions. Those who also collect and manage the data will also have to protect it from misuse and exploitation or face penalties for not doing so.
If your organization operates in the EU or offers goods and services to customers or businesses in the EU then GDPR applies to you.
What we are doing at LexBlog
LexBlog is working with our counsel on compliance with the GDPR, and our email service provider for the blogs, MailChimp, is as well.
As far as cookies go, we provide a cookie disclaimer as a feature option on Apple Fritter. Please feel free to take a look at huntonimmigrationlawblog.com for an example of our cookie disclaimers.
We can’t provide legal advice for GDPR and compliance as this also depends on our customers’ use of the platform and subscriber data. However, we can outline how the email system currently works so you can determine with your attorneys if you would like to make any changes to the blog emails:
- A user enters their email address in a subscribe form on the sidebar of your blog. Disclaimer text may be added below the subscribe form.
- The user is sent an email asking to click a link to confirm their subscription to your blog. The text in this email can be changed upon request.
- When a user clicks the confirmation link, they are added to your subscriber list, taken to a thank you page, and sent a welcome email. The text in this email can be changed upon request.
- In each email notification they are sent, they can click a link to Unsubscribe to stop receiving emails or Update their subscription by changing their email address.
- A user may also unsubscribe by contacting you, LexBlog or MailChimp. They will receive a confirmation email of their unsubscription. They won’t be sent any email unless they subscribe again, but a record of their subscription will remain in the database.
- A user or your firm may contact LexBlog or MailChimp to be deleted from the subscriber list, in which case they won’t receive any more emails, and they will be removed from the database.
If you have any questions feel free to reach out to our support team at success@lexblog.com