Today we’re covering GDPR and how it affects Shopify Drop Shipping Stores.
The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR for short, has been a hot topic lately.
It’s a new law taking effect on May 25, 2018 in Europe.
You may be thinking, well, “I don’t live, sell, advertise or otherwise conduct any business in Europe so this doesn’t matter to me!”
And you’d be wrong.
If your website or Shopify Drop Shipping business is even available for internet users to access in Europe, this affects you as well.
Enjoy the video as Rito covers our GDPR compliance checklist:
There’s not too much you need to do in order to become GDPR compliant.
But you do need to do it if you don’t want to receive massive fines.
These fines are intended for larger companies like Google, Shopify etc…
So if and when a smaller company is hit with one, it can be devastating.
With that, here’s our official compliance checklist for Drop Shipping Stores:
LEGAL DISCLOSURE***
This blog post and the accompanying video is not in any way to be considered legal advice.
Rito and myself are simply offering our non legal opinions on the matter.
Utilize any information discovered here at your own risk.
With that said, we’d never intentionally mislead you and adhere to the checklist you’re about to discover when it comes to our very own websites.
But every website is unique.
We don’t know which apps or third parties you work with.
Always perform due diligence when it comes to anything concerning your business.
Let’s dive in!
General Data Protection Regulation Compliance Checklist
Refer to this checklist as you ensure your Shopify Drop Shipping store is GDPR compliant.
1) Anywhere you collect email addresses must have an unchecked check box stating: “I agree to subscribe to get updates, discounts and offers from XYZ company.” It’s very important that the check box is unchecked and the user needs to manually click the box prior to subscribing. If you’re using an app for your email subscriptions and they don’t currently offer this feature, you need to contact them immediately and request an updated version containing the consent check box.
2) The second thing you need to do is update your existing Privacy Policy. Shopify has already updated their sample privacy policy. If you go to your store setting and select “Checkout” you’ll see when the sample privacy policy has been generated. Click it again to refresh and utilize the new version. Within this generated privacy policy you’ll find several words within quotes. You’ll need to insert or remove whatever is required inside of the quotes to make it your own. The final step is to copy this new Privacy Policy and paste it on your actual Privacy Policy page.
3) The third thing you need to do is obtain a person’s consent to use cookies. This is commonly done in the form of a floating bar either at the top of bottom of the page, that doesn’t disappear until a user clicks, “Accept.” The bar will literally appear on every page viewed until accepted.
4) The fourth thing we recommend doing is combing through each app installed on your Shopify store and contact each developer 1 by 1. The larger companies like MailChimp for example are already GDPR compliant so you don’t need to contact them. However, many of the smaller companies, and or private developers have yet to become compliant. Simply send them an email to ensure their GDPR compliance moving forward. If you’re using apps that are out of compliance on your store, you’re going to be the one who gets the fine.
There’s not much else to worry about beyond what we’ve outlined here.
By following the 4-Point Checklist above you should be safe and not fall into any trouble.
Again, this is the checklist we follow ourselves.
Always perform your own due diligence and if you can afford it, contact your local business attorney for any further clarification and adherence confirmation.
The entire purpose of the GDPR is to remain transparent and honest with internet users – respecting their data and privacy.
Remaining ethical and transparent is a surefire way to ensure longterm business success.
And ensuring your Shopify Store’s GDPR compliance is 100% your responsibility.
That’ll do it for Episode 14 – Great work!
Questions, comments or just want to say hi?
We love hearing from you in the comments below!
Success by choice, not by chance,
-David Aston
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