Do I have to be concerned with GDPR?

05/09/18 • 9 min

As a part of the GDPR, all customers or users will have the right to request the data held on them, the right to have that data deleted if its original purpose has ceased, and the right to have that data transferred to a different provider.

Which means to provide an individual with the right to request, delete, or move their personal data, the individual must be aware that you as a company have the data to begin with. Without their awareness of you using their data, they have no actionable right. So the use of user or customer data through third party providers is likely to become quite complicated.

This would fall under the right-to-be-forgotten laws.

As you can see from the previous 5 sentences alone, there are lots of room for interpretation and questions to be answered. So best to consult your lawyer.

I can’t tell you how to make your business comply with GDPR because there are still so many gray areas (in my opinion) for the EU, that outside of the EU it’s even a darker gray.

What I can tell you is that if you are “doing right” by your email subscribers you are well on your way to being compliant.

What’s “doing right” mean?

It means that:

you are doing double opt-in
you are allowing folks to unsubscribe from every email
if you are sharing email addresses via JV webinars, online summits, partnerships, etc with other businesses, you are sending transitional emails to those subscribers letting them know what you are doing with their email address and giving them an option to opt-out
you share who else has their data and make sure that you understand (even sign, in some cases) what they are doing with the data. This includes 3rd parties such as Google, Facebook, etc.
you aren’t selling your email list

In short, you are doing good business with good intentions.

You may also want to update your privacy policy on your website after the conversation with your lawyer.

Further resources:
12 Steps to take now
GDPR Requirements in Plain English

Action Items

Update your Privacy Policy
Add a checkbox to any lead magnet form and have the subscriber acknowledge what you intend on doing with their information after the lead magnet delivery
Find out what else you can do from your own email marketing service

In Drip and ConvertKit, you can segment your list to find those that are within the EU, add in GDPR specific settings into forms, and take actions to comply with the GDPR in other ways.

Here are some other platforms and how they are handling GDPR:
MailChimp
ActiveCampaign
HubSpot
AWeber
Constant Contact

This would fall under the right-to-be-forgotten laws.

As you can see from the previous 5 sentences alone, there are lots of room for interpretation and questions to be answered. So best to consult your lawyer.

I can’t tell you how to make your business comply with GDPR because there are still so many gray areas (in my opinion) for the EU, that outside of the EU it’s even a darker gray.

What I can tell you is that if you are “doing right” by your email subscribers you are well on your way to being compliant.

What’s “doing right” mean?

It means that:

you are doing double opt-in
you are allowing folks to unsubscribe from every email
if you are sharing email addresses via JV webinars, online summits, partnerships, etc with other businesses, you are sending transitional emails to those subscribers letting them know what you are doing with their email address and giving them an option to opt-out
you share who else has their data and make sure that you understand (even sign, in some cases) what they are doing with the data. This includes 3rd parties such as Google, Facebook, etc.
you aren’t selling your email list

In short, you are doing good business with good intentions.

You may also want to update your privacy policy on your website after the conversation with your lawyer.

Further resources:
12 Steps to take now
GDPR Requirements in Plain English

Action Items

Update your Privacy Policy
Add a checkbox to any lead magnet form and have the subscriber acknowledge what you intend on doing with their information after the lead magnet delivery
Find out what else you can do from your own email marketing service

In Drip and ConvertKit, you can segment your list to find those that are within the EU, add in GDPR specific settings into forms, and take actions to comply with the GDPR in other ways.

Here are some other platforms and how they are handling GDPR:
MailChimp
ActiveCampaign
HubSpot
AWeber
Constant Contact

Previous Episode

Isn’t it hard to have self-discipline when you work at home?

In episode 36 - How to work from home effectively, I dove into 4 tips and discipline was the very first tip.

Then in episode 45 - How does the house run with 2 stay at home, freelancing parents, I shared 3 tactics that help the house to run smoothly while maintaining a high level of quality to our work.

Aside from those 7 tips, I want to answer you with something that I didn’t mention in those episodes.

That’s self-awareness. Let me explain what I mean in this episode.

Next Episode

What did your parents/partner say when you told them you wanted to freelance?

Today I dive a bit into my personal life that I haven't done before.

So have a listen and see if you can relate.

The main thing though is you want to make sure that you surround yourself with supportive people. Not necessarily supportive of your choice, but support you.

What I mean by that is, to this day, my Mom still doesn’t really understand what I do, but she is proud of the life and happy if I’m happy. My friends may question some of my decisions I choose around doing or not doing something work related, but they know that I always manage to figure out a way.

If you surround yourself with doubters or people who will judge you constantly, then they will inevitably start to rub off on you and you’ll start to doubt yourself. These people are detractors.

If your family are detractors, then take what they say as concern for your well-being and security and their own fears of the unknown. It doesn’t mean that they don’t support you, it’s just that they may not see down the same path as you.

It’s family, remember that.

Instead I encourage you to surround yourself with folks who may challenge you, play a bit of a devil’s advocate if you will.

Find your own path, don’t be shy about telling someone about you freelancing. Let them think what they think and leave it at that.

There’s really no better time than now to plant your flag in the freelance space.