Johanna took a great brief, understood exactly what I wanted and made it so much better
-- Gary Betts, Sculptor
As you may no doubt have heard by now, the Data Protection Act 1998 has been overhauled to give us all more protection as to how our personal data is obtained and treated. As of May 25th 2018 the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are coming into force and require anyone who deals with customer data to make some changes in the way they keep and secure this data. We have given our own Privacy Policy an overhaul to show you what we mean, and have chosen for a separate Cookies Policy explaining in detail which cookies are used by this website and how you can control these cookies on your computer.
The ICO offers a handy guide to the General Data Protection Regulations, including a list of the rights of individuals in regards to their personal data. If you are a business or organisation who deals with customer personal data, have you also registered with the ICO? If not, maybe now is a good time to do so as every data controller who is processing personal information has to be registered (unless exempt). Visit the Information Commissioners' Office website for more information and to register, which only costs £35.00 per year for small businesses and organisations. The Data Protection Act 1998 requires every data controller (eg organisation, sole trader) who is processing personal information to register with the ICO, unless they are exempt. Over half a million organisations are currently registered.
Your website will need a number of changes as well to comply with the new regulations over and above changing your privacy and cookies policies. It will need a clear way to consent to the cookies used and also to your privacy policy which usually means adding a cookies consent banner which enables visitors to read more about your policies, see exactly which cookies are used and they can then agree, turn certain cookies off or leave the website.
You also need to update any forms with implied or pre-checked consent, and offer checkboxes to ensure you receive consent for personal data to be received and stored for the purposes of dealing with the requested service.
If you need help with all of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us any time as we are happy to assist.
