{"id":346,"date":"2018-06-05T16:15:11","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T13:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chatra.io\/blog\/?p=346"},"modified":"2018-06-05T16:17:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T13:17:05","slug":"making-sense-of-gdpr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/making-sense-of-gdpr\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Sense Of GDPR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether you\u2019re a business owner or consumer you\u2019ve probably \u2013 well, unless you\u2019ve been living under a rock! \u2013 heard about the introduction of new legislation called GDPR (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gdpr-info.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">General Data Protection Regulation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). What you may not know however, beyond a deluge of emails from companies in your inbox asking to stay in touch, is what it means for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this post we want to share with you a few updates and changes within our product that can help you become compliant as a data controller, and take responsibility over the data of your end users, as well as what GDPR (aka DGVSO) means for business owners and their customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But before we get to that, a quick disclaimer: none of the below (or any other communication with us, for that matter) constitutes legal advice. Use your best judgement, and consult directly with the relevant authorities and\/or legal advisers whenever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that small print is out of the way, let\u2019s get started&#8230;<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><b>What exactly IS GDPR?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a new EU legislation that regulates how the personal information of European Union residents must be treated. Replacing the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1995 Data Protection Directive, it sets minimum standards for how data must be processed within the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specifically, it makes a number of changes to existing law that you\u2019ll want to know about:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GDPR strengthens the rights of individuals, who will gain the power to demand that companies show them any data that they hold about them<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019ll also be entitled to demand that companies delete some or all of that information at their request<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regulators will be given more power to work across Europe, rather than taking action in individual countries<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maximum fines for breaking the rules will now hit \u20ac20m (\u00a317.5m), or 4% of the offending company\u2019s worldwide turnover<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words? Privacy just became a <\/span><strong>very<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> big deal to every company currently operating in Europe!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Chatra and the GDPR<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a company dealing with personal information provided by both our own customers AND their end users, we\u2019ve always taken privacy very seriously. In fact, we\u2019ve <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/chatra.io\/gdpr\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">already published<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> information about the actions we\u2019ve taken to become compliant as a data processor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a nutshell, those changes included a close examination of our business and technological processes, putting a DPA\u00a0(which you&#8217;re <em>not<\/em> required to sign) in place and updating our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/chatra.io\/terms-of-service\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ToS<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/chatra.io\/privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Privacy Policy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Below, you\u2019ll find information about what we consider to be some of the most pertinent issues concerning GDPR as it relates to Chatra and how you use it:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>1. IP addresses<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By default, Chatra doesn\u2019t reveal a visitor\u2019s IP address. If you need to access it for security reasons, just check the box \u201cShow Visitor\u2019s IP\u201d address <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/app.chatra.io\/settings\/general#ip\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the settings area<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-354\" src=\"https:\/\/chatra.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/01-ip-450x100.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/01-ip-450x100.png 450w, https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/01-ip-450x100-300x67.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>2. <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/app.chatra.io\/settings\/preform\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Pre-chat form<\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s up to you to decide whether or not you want to ask your visitors to introduce themselves and collect their name, email and\/or phone number. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve added a new checkbox to our form that can be used to collect consent for newsletter subscription. When a visitor fills in the form their consent, with exact wording, will be recorded in the conversation history in Chatra to help you comply with GDPR record-keeping requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-355\" src=\"https:\/\/chatra.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/02-consent-509x273.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/02-consent-509x273.png 509w, https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/02-consent-509x273-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can still collect personal information (including emails) from those who don\u2019t grant you consent for marketing purposes but you can clearly separate or exclude them when <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/app.chatra.io\/reports\/emails\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exporting email address lists of users you\u2019ve chatted with<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If someone hasn\u2019t granted you their consent for marketing purposes, then you definitely should NOT send them promotional material because you risk heavy fines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSo why allow me to export \u2018non-consenter\u2019 email addresses at all?\u201d you might ask. The answer is that, even though someone hasn\u2019t granted you permission to send them marketing material, you might need to follow up with users on a specific issue by email. Our new export tool will allow you to do that more easily and safely.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>3. Terms of Service<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s very likely that you\u2019ll be making changes or additions to your Terms of Service\/Terms and Conditions. In many cases, you\u2019ll want to have some concrete evidence that your user has seen, and agrees with, those new Terms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our pre-chat form you can also request that users (or \u201cdata subjects\u201d<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to use the language of GDPR) agree to your Terms of Service before initiating a chat. Alternatively, you can use this checkbox to collect data processing consent that\u2019s in line with your business agenda. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-356\" src=\"https:\/\/chatra.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/03-preform-540x306.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/03-preform-540x306.png 540w, https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/03-preform-540x306-300x170.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Note that if you don\u2019t use a pre-chat form to collect personal info and\/or consent, you can always ask for it in the chat itself. You might want to create a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/app.chatra.io\/settings\/saved-replies\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">saved reply template<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if you intend to use this feature regularly, or want to create long\/elaborate consent requests to cover your back just in case of any future complaints.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>4. Right to access\/modify\/delete personal information<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The GDPR grants data subjects, i.e. your customers, the right to know what information you hold about them. It took us a while, but we worked day and night to implement a Search feature in Chatra that lets you do just that \u2013 you can use it to find all the relevant information in any conversations you have through Chatra. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-357\" src=\"https:\/\/chatra.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/04-search-277x239.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"277\" height=\"239\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve found what you\u2019re looking for you can modify, share or delete specific information piece by piece or get rid of the entire conversation. We should also point out that, if you decide to close your Chatra account, we will destroy all data belonging to you AND your customers within a reasonable timeframe that aligns with GDPR regulations.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We want to emphasise again that we\u2019re fully aware of the sensitive nature of our business, which involves processing a huge amount of personal information, and we have always been mindful of that during the development and deployment of Chatra. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of our existing processes were <\/span><strong>already<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> compliant with new rules and regulations now being put into place, even before the GDPR appeared on the scene. We hope, however, that the new tools and features we\u2019ve released will make it easier for you to become compliant as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have any questions or concerns about Chatra and the GDPR, feel free to send us a message!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you\u2019re a business owner or consumer you\u2019ve probably \u2013 well, unless you\u2019ve been living under a rock! \u2013 heard about the introduction of new legislation called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). What you may not know however, beyond a deluge of emails from companies in your inbox asking to stay in touch, is what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,1],"tags":[16,18,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}