GDPR is changing the perspective of web design and development. This law went into the effect on May 25, 2018 and impacts any website that is accessed by countries in the EU or held in the EU.
Any organization that has a web presence or wants to use the personal data of EU citizens must comply with this regulation. This law aims to create transparency among users regarding who “owns” their data.
Why GDPR?
- In this digital age, the idea behind the General Data Protection Regulation is to increase the trust of the customer as it is the necessary task for the growth of the website design. EU has concluded that GDPR is sued to give more control over their data to the user when and how their personal information will be used.
- It will help win the trust of users of digital services. If all the information will not be transparent in front of the user, then digital agency may lose its existing and impending customer.
Here are some points that will help you to understand how GDPR is beneficial for website design and development.
Be Clear to Obtain Consent
- Explain everything: You need to clearly explain all the things why you are collecting personal information of a user and what will you do with this information. If you will clearly define all the things, then people will be more attracted towards your site .
- Uncertainty is not good for any organization: Avoid ambiguity by using the personal information otherwise it will turn people away from your business. So, you need to be open and honest.
- Target your audience: If your audience is young, you will need the consent of parent otherwise make it simple to cancel their consent.
Provide Privacy Through Design
GDPR requires the endorsement of the privacy by design framework. This is a development methodology that requires the highest data protection. Thus, it should be provided as standard and across all applications.
Here are some points that privacy by design provides. Take a look at these points:
- You should be proactive, meaning that you may forecast privacy issues before reaching the user.
- User privacy should be done by default so that the user does not need to take any action for their security. Do not assume any consent for data sharing.
- Privacy must be the core function of any product or service and it must be embedded into the design.
- This framework provides a balance between privacy and security.
- It offers end-to-end protection of user data. Hence, it renders the data minimization process and deletion processes.
- The standards that you use in your website design must be visible and transparently verifiable.
- Privacy must target the user’s needs. It should give the user many privacy options for maximizing the security.
GDPR-Responsive Design Requirements
Design requirement has become the important part of a GDPR- responsive development workflow. When a design process starts then the developer should keep in mind that data protection should be safe by default. Thus, they recommend that collect only the required data. For getting the best site, you do not need to link user personal data with other data sets that you store in the same location. Before aggregating data, you are required to remove the personal information.
Give Access to the User
Provide access to the user so that they may delete their data by themselves if they find that this data is not necessary to keep or find the information provided by you is wrong or irrelevant. Do not forget to create the backup of personal data.
Remember to Delete Data with Third-Party Partners
If you are working with the third party and use their data or pass your data to them then you need to know that any deletion request should be made on both ends means if you delete any data, then it should be deleted on the third-party end.
Provide Encryption
Another aspect of GDPR affects website design and stipulates that your personal data should be encrypted at all times. Therefore, it should not be visible to all the users of a website.
Conclusion
To sum up, GDPR increases requirements for all websites, but implementing changes does not have to be difficult. Therefore, we all need to become more careful before collecting any personal data. We should treat others’ data like we treat our own data. So, to avoid data breaches, every site should comply with GDPR.
Author Bio
Tom Hardy has hands-on experience as a consultant. He currently works at Sparx IT Solutions: GDPR Compliance Consulting Firm and offers exceptional website auditing services to prepare a business for GDPR readiness. Also, he writes informative blogs to let users know how much it is important to comply with GDPR for website and mobile applications to get better data security.
