GDPR is something that we bloggers need to take seriously. At Author Buzz, we’ve been looking at options to help our members comply with the new rules.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be enforced from May next year, requiring all organisations that handle EU residents’ data to abide by its strict terms. As Brexit has not yet happened. British blogs still need to undertake this process.

While the JetPack cookie notification widget will probably cover your GDPR requirements, I felt that a stronger effort than “probably” was called for.

Which is why we have installed a dedicated GDPR plugin. I’m currently testing it out in order to write a full guide for the Author Buzz blog.

To use, simply activate the GDPR plugin and then fill out the details. If you are unsure which external sites you might be sending data to the plugin can profile your blog. It’d be best not to leave it profiling too long as that will slow things down. The chances are that you will only be using JetPack and maybe an anti-spam service.

GDPR compliance with your blog is the responsibility of the blog owner. While there is every chance you could get away without doing anything I strongly recommend that you at least have a written privacy policy.

For more on what the GDPR means and what you need to do to comply, try this blog post.