With increased cyber-security concerns, maintaining data privacy and user confidentiality is a cornerstone of any online business. Since the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation  (GDPR) on the 25th of May 2018, the safety responsibilities of store owners have become a lot more strict.

While there is so much talk about GDPR on the web, little has been said about Magento store owners and how GDPR affects them. In this post we aim to explore the basics of the GDPR policy and get you oriented with 7 ways you can fail while making your Magento store GDPR-ready. In addition, we’re going to shed light on Magento GDPR Extension and discover how the plugin can bring your online business into the full compliance with GDPR legislation.

GDPR Explained in Simple Term

General Data Protection Regulation is a set of rules intended to protect consumer interests and control the companies that collect, process and store the data. Personal data can refer to any information used for identifying a person: names, contact details, IP addresses, etc. The regulation applies to all organizations that run online business in the European Union (EU) and therefore should take adequate steps to make their e-stores GDPR compliant.

Before going into further details, let’s clarify two definitions:

• Data controllers: Magento merchants who should state how and why personal data is used. Also, they are responsible for the safe storage and usage of clients’ data.
• Data processor: Magento itself. It processes customers’ personal data at the controller’s directions.

As a data processor, the Magento team has done a great job to make the platform pre-ready for GDPR once the legislation came into force. As data controllers – keep reading the post to learn and understand more about new regulations. Let’s dig a little deeper into how Magento merchants should comply, what are the consequences of non-compliance and how to avoid the main failures while preparing the e-commerce store for GDPR regulation.

Who Does GDPR Affect and What are the Penalties for Non-Compliance?

In fact, GDPR applies to companies of all sizes starting from small businesses to enterprises. So, knowing as much as you can about all GDPR requirements will help your online shop become Magento GDPR compliant and avoid potential fines in the future. To be more specific, failing to comply with GDPR principles could lead to penalties running into tens of millions of Euros and the customers’ distrust. Since GDPR policy is treated as a regulation, not a directive, it is legally binding – that means it cannot be opted out or ignored.

Magento GDPR Compliance: 7 Failures to Avoid

The new GDPR legislation asks a lot from online store owners when it comes to processing personal data in a safe and reliable way. Therefore, if you want to achieve successful results in Magento GDPR implementation, take into consideration the following problems to prevent any unexpected circumstances in the future:

1. You Don’t Obtain Active Consent

GDPR holds its core importance on consent. Hence, you need to ensure that all customer data you store is processed with full consent given. Also, it is your responsibility to inform the customers about how their data is going to be used. Your potential customer should actively confirm the consent by ticking an unchecked opt-in box. Pre-checked boxes that use customer inaction to assume consent are no longer valid under GDPR.

2. The Cookies Are Not Set Properly

To become GDPR compliant, it is important to inform Magento customers about your data collection activities and give them the option to choose whether they agree or not. Thus, a cookie consent bar needs to be integrated on the Magento store. It will state how and why you manage cookies, which 3rd-party tracking are used and how you share data with external software. Also, it is required to obtain customer consent before the installation of these cookies. In practice, you’ll need to show a popup banner at the user’s first visit, implement a cookie policy and allow the user to provide consent.

3. There’s No Possibility to Delete or Anonymize Customers’ Data On the E-Store

GDPR requires that all customers data should be removed from the database at user’s first request. In other words, the clients should get an option to ask for deleting their personal information that have been left over time on the e-store. Hence, it is critical to implement a secure way to erase all the information related to invoices and order history, shipping details, subscription status, etc.

4. Data Portability Is Not Available

It is vital to provide Magento customers with a right to request a copy with all their personal information (like transactions, orders, addresses, account info, subscription data, or any data from 3rd party extension). Also, remember to offer the clients a possibility to extract their information into CSV, Excel, etc. and respond to this request within a month.

5. Your Privacy Policy Isn’t Revised and Transparent Yet

As has already been mentioned, updating your privacy policy according to GDPR legislation comprises of a lot of specific details. As such, it is suggested to include next details: what data you store, what you use it for, how you collect and protect information, how long you hold it for, and whom you share it with. Besides that, the privacy policy should be easy to find, clear to read and understand.

6. You Don’t Take Responsibility for the External Software Used in Your Magento Store

Being a Magento store owner, you probably use a number of 3rd-party applications to help you expand Magento store functionality: analytics tools, email marketing software, etc. So, take your time to identify whether all partners that have access to private data in the Magento store database are GDPR-ready.

7. The Storage Factor Is Not Considered

Storage is treated as one of the most complicated aspects of the GDPR legislation. If you need to store information for further use, make sure your database is searchable, well-documented and includes the information about when & why data was captured by you or any 3d-party applications.

How to Become GDPR Compliant with Magento GDPR Extension

With all that being said, Magento GDPR compliance is a critical issue for Magento store owners, so ignoring this regulation may cause hefty penalties. Thus, in order to avoid missing any important details during GDPR implementation, you can take advantage of Magento 2 GDPR plugin. The Magento GDPR cookies extension provides merchants with a necessary toolset to comply with essential GDPR regulations:

• withdraw customer account data;
• erase/anonymize customer account;
• obtain users’ consent;
• set cookies;
• provide GeoIP functionality;
• exploit various themes, etc.

By and large, Plumrocket GDPR Magento module has proved itself as an all-in-one solution that helps the e-store owners comply with the most critical GDPR rules. If you want to learn more about the extension, check out a free demo and documentation for useful insights.

Final Words

Making your Magento store GDPR compliant can turn out to be a complex and time-consuming task. Fortunately, Magento GDPR Extension can help you go through the procedure effortlessly without spending too much time and efforts. So, don’t wait any longer to comply with most critical GDPR rules, as well as store customers’ data in the most transparent and secure way!