Is Your Website GDPR Compliant?

100 Local Websites Reviewed

I spotted a number of striking points recently after conducting a review of 100 local websites.

100 local websites reviewed

I conducted the review because I wanted to get a feeling for where business owners are up to with their GDPR legal compliance, particularly as the regulations apply to their websites.

It also seems clear after my review, that a lot of business owners are missing an opportunity that presents itself as a direct result of the introduction of the GDPR regulations.

100 local websites reviewed

Does It Matter About GDPR?

Most business owners will find that over the longer term ignoring the GDPR regulations can have an impact they are not anticipating.

The aim of the regulations is to improve the standards of privacy protection. The longer the standards are not met, the bigger the eventual problem. If we think about business exit strategies, (sales, mergers, acquisitions), these are the points in time that any shortcomings will reveal themselves.

These regulations came into effect in May 2018. That should have given most businesses the opportunity to implement these new standards. The results I found came as something of a shock.

The Sites Reviewed

The sites reviewed were typical local business providers. The reviews were split evenly between care providers and professional service providers. I chose these sectors because the care providers must meet strict standards in delivering their services. The professional service providers again operate under strict standards for providing their advice and services. It seems reasonable to assume they will be operating within the relevant legal rules and regulations.

100 local websites reviewed

Errors In Implementing The Regulations

The results of the review primarily found a mixture of errors in implementing the regulations, as they apply to business websites.  This is probably down to a misunderstanding of how the regulations are to be implemented.

Legal Regulations Ignored

In other cases, no effort had been made to make any attempt to comply with the GDPR legal regulations. This was surprising, considering that a website is the main public facing tool used to explain what a business is all about and what clients can expect when dealing with a business.

The lack of expressed standards regarding privacy protection by these websites can be viewed as alarming, given that privacy protection is now a legal requirement for all businesses.

100 local websites reviewed

The Mistakes Being Made

Keep an eye out for my next post. I will be looking into the typical mistakes that are being made in the websites I reviewed.  

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