In the 21st century, data is the new currency. As an ecommerce marketer, you collect, process, and store a large amount of personal data from your customers. This data is invaluable for understanding your customers, personalizing their shopping experience, and driving sales. However, with great power comes great responsibility.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has set several standards for how businesses should handle personal data, and non-compliance can result in hefty fines. This article will provide a comprehensive GDPR overview, guiding ecommerce marketers on how to comply with these regulations.

Please note: This GDPR overview is intended as a guide and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice. Always consult with a legal professional to ensure that you are fully compliant with GDPR.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. The GDPR aims to give control to individuals over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.

GDPR is applicable to any organization, regardless of its location, that processes the personal data of individuals in the EU. This means that as an ecommerce marketer, if you have customers in the EU, you need to comply with GDPR. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the company’s global annual turnover, whichever is higher.

It is very important that you understand each term outlined in this GDPR overview. If you need help in defining what some of them mean, you can read the official GDPR Definitions list.

This GDPR overview would be incomplete without discussing the seven GDPR principles:

1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency

Lawfulness: You must have a legal basis for processing personal data. This could be consent, a contract, a legal obligation, or a legitimate interest.
Fairness: You must process personal data in a fair and transparent way. This means that you must be clear about why you are collecting and using personal data, and you must give people control over their personal data.
Transparency: You must be transparent about how you collect, use, and share personal data. This means that you must provide clear and concise information regarding the collection, use, storage and deletion of user data in your privacy policy.

For ecommerce marketers, this means that you must be clear about why you are collecting personal data from your customers. For example, you may collect personal data to process orders, to provide customer support, or to send marketing emails. You must also give your customers control over their personal data. This means that they must be able to easily unsubscribe from your marketing emails and request that you delete their personal data.

You must also be transparent about how you collect, use, and share personal data. This means that you must provide clear and concise information about your privacy practices in your privacy policy. Your privacy policy should explain what personal data you collect, why you collect it, how you use it, and how you share it.

You can start by following these steps:

Obtain consent: Before you can collect personal data from your customers, you must obtain their consent. This means that they must explicitly agree to the collection and use of their personal data.
Use clear and concise language: When you collect personal data from your customers, you must use clear and concise language. This means that they must be able to easily understand what personal data you are collecting, why you are collecting it, and how you will use it.
Give people control: You must give your customers control over their personal data. This means that they must be able to easily unsubscribe from your marketing emails and request that you delete their personal data.
Use a reputable email service provider: A reputable email service provider will have strong security measures in place to protect your customer data.
Encrypt your customer data: Encrypting your customer data will help to protect it from unauthorized access.

2. Purpose limitation

The second key principle of the GDPR is purpose limitation. This means that you can only collect personal data for a specific, explicit, and legitimate purpose. You must clearly state this purpose to the individual when you collect their data.

For ecommerce marketers, this means that you must be clear about why you are collecting personal data from your customers. For example, you may collect personal data to process orders, to provide customer support, or to send marketing emails.

Here are some examples of how ecommerce marketers can comply with the purpose limitation principle:

If you are collecting personal data to process orders, you must only use that data for that purpose. You cannot use it for marketing or any other purpose without the customer’s consent.
If you are collecting personal data to provide customer support, you must only use that data to provide support. You cannot use it for marketing or any other purpose without the customer’s consent.
If you are collecting personal data to send marketing emails, you must clearly state that you are collecting the data for marketing purposes. You must also give the customer the option to unsubscribe from marketing emails.

In short, in order to comply with GDPR’s second principle, you should:

Be clear about your purpose: When you collect personal data from your customers, you must be clear about why you are collecting it. This means that you must state the purpose in your privacy policy and in any other materials where you collect personal data.
Only use the data for the purpose you stated: Once you have collected personal data from your customers, you must only use it for the purpose you stated. You cannot use it for any other purpose without the customer’s consent.

3. Data minimization

The third key principle of the GDPR is data minimization. This means that you should not collect any personal data that you do not need. For example, for ecommerce marketers, this means that you should only collect the personal data that you need to process orders, provide customer support, or send marketing emails. This also means that you must carefully consider what data you need before you start collecting it. You also must state the purpose in your privacy policy and in any other materials where you collect personal data.

Here are some examples of how ecommerce marketers can comply with the data minimization principle:

If you are collecting personal data to process orders, you only need to collect the data that is necessary to process the order. This may include the customer’s name, address, email address, and payment information.
If you are collecting personal data to provide customer support, you only need to collect the data that is necessary to provide support. This may include the customer’s name, email address, and the nature of the support issue.
If you are collecting personal data to send marketing emails, you only need to collect the data that is necessary to send the emails. This may include the customer’s name, email address, and interests.

4. Accuracy

the fourth key principle of the GDPR is accuracy. This means that you must regularly review the personal data that you have collected from your customers to ensure that it is accurate and up to date. If you find that any of the data is inaccurate or out of date, you must take steps to correct it.

Here are some examples of how you can comply with the accuracy principle:

Require customers to update their personal data: You can require your customers to update their personal data on a regular basis. This can be done through your website or through your customer support team.
Use automated tools: You can use automated tools to help you keep your personal data accurate and up to date. These tools can scan your data for inaccuracies and send alerts when they are found.
Have a process for correcting inaccuracies: You must have a process in place for correcting inaccuracies in your data. This process should be easy for customers to use and should be transparent to them.

5. Storage limitation

The fifth key principle of the GDPR is storage limitation. This means that you can only store personal data for as long as necessary for your specified purpose. For ecommerce marketers, this means that you must have a process in place for deleting personal data once it is no longer necessary for your specified purpose. For example, if you collect personal data to process an order, you must delete the data once the order is complete.

Here are some examples:

Set retention periods: You can set retention periods for different types of personal data. This means that you will delete the data after a certain period of time, even if it is still necessary for your specified purpose.
Have a process for deleting data: You must have a process in place for deleting personal data. This process should be easy for customers to use and should be transparent to them.

6. Integrity and confidentiality

You must process personal data in a way that ensures its security. This means that you must take steps to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. This includes using strong passwords, encrypting data, and having a process for handling data breaches.

Here are some examples of how you can comply with the integrity and confidentiality principle:

Use strong passwords: You should use strong passwords for all of your accounts that contain personal data. This means that passwords should be at least 12 characters long and should include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Encrypt your data: You should encrypt all personal data that you store. This will help to protect the data from unauthorized access if your systems are compromised.
Have a process for handling data breaches: You should have a process in place for handling data breaches. This process should include notifying customers of the breach and taking steps to mitigate the damage.

7. Accountability

The seventh key principle of the GDPR is accountability. This means that you are responsible for complying with the GDPR and must be able to demonstrate your compliance.

For ecommerce marketers, this means that you must have a process in place for ensuring that you are compliant with the GDPR. This process should include documenting your compliance, implementing appropriate technical and organizational measures, and being able to demonstrate your compliance to the authorities.

Here are some examples:

Document your compliance: You should document your compliance with the GDPR. This documentation should include your privacy policy, your data processing procedures, and your incident response plan.
Implement appropriate technical and organizational measures: You should implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. This includes using strong passwords, encrypting data, and having a process for handling data breaches.
Be able to demonstrate your compliance: You should be able to demonstrate your compliance with the GDPR to the authorities. This means that you should be able to provide them with documentation of your compliance and answer their questions.

GDPR overview: how to assure that your business is compliant with GDPR?

1. Understand the Personal Data You Collect

The first step to GDPR compliance is understanding the personal data you collect from your customers. Personal data is any information that can be used to identify an individual. This includes names, email addresses, physical addresses, IP addresses, and even cookie identifiers.

You need to know what personal data you collect, why you collect it, how you use it, where you store it, and who has access to it. You also need to know how long you keep the data and what security measures you have in place to protect it.

2. Obtain Consent

Under GDPR, you must obtain explicit consent from individuals before you can collect and process their personal data. This means that you need to ask your customers for permission to collect their data and clearly explain how you plan to use it.

Consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. This means that you can’t use pre-ticked boxes or any other method of default consent. Instead, individuals must actively opt-in to have their data collected.

3. Provide Clear Privacy Notices

Transparency is a key principle of GDPR. You need to provide clear and accessible information to individuals about how you use their personal data. This is usually done through a privacy notice or policy.

Your privacy notice should explain what data you collect, why you collect it, how you use it, who you share it with, how long you keep it, and what rights individuals have in relation to their data. It should also provide information about your data protection officer (if you have one) and how individuals can make a complaint to the relevant data protection authority.

4. Respect Individuals’ Rights

GDPR provides individuals with several rights in relation to their personal data. As an ecommerce marketer, you need to respect these rights and have procedures in place to handle requests from individuals. These rights include:

– The right to be informed about how their data is used.
– The right to access their data.
– The right to correct inaccurate data.
– The right to request the deletion of their data.
– The right to restrict processing of their data.
– The right to data portability.
– The right to object to the processing of their data.
– Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

5. Implement Data Security Measures

GDPR requires you to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. This could include measures such as encryption, pseudonymization, access controls, and staff training.

You also need to have procedures in place to detect, report, and investigate a personal data breach. If a breach occurs, you may need to notify the relevant data protection authority and the individuals affected.

6. Conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments

For certain types of processing, GDPR requires you to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). A DPIA is a process designed to help you systematically analyze, identify, and minimize the data protection risks of a project or plan.

7. Appoint a Data Protection Officer

In some cases, you may be required to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). A DPO is responsible for overseeing data protection strategy and implementation to ensure compliance with GDPR.

Conclusion

Complying with GDPR as an ecommerce marketer can be a complex task, but it’s essential for protecting your customers’ personal data and avoiding hefty fines. By understanding the personal data you collect, obtaining consent, providing clear privacy notices, respecting individuals’ rights, implementing data security measures, conducting DPIAs, and appointing a DPO, you can ensure that your ecommerce business is GDPR compliant.

Besides this GDPR overview, it’s important to look at the details here: GDPR.eu

Table of Contents

GDPR Overview

What are the 7 Principles of GDPR?