Are You and Your Real Estate Website and Blog GDPR Compliant Yet?
By Gerri Leventhal – Find NJ House
Quite frankly everyone publishing online should be aware and concerned with the legality of collecting data about visitors to your web content. Yes, you could get fined if you are not abiding by the GDPR laws even if you are a USA business and not located in the European Union and do not do business there. But shouldn’t you want to be in compliance even if you are not required to be? Bear in mind, GDPR is going to be the new lowest standard for all websites and blogs everywhere soon.
Sure compliance may be a hassle right now for you but it is for everyone’s good and best interest. Foreigners do buy real estate in the States. Some foreigners will land on your website and blog eventually. So legally you could be in jeopardy.
Get into compliance and then Promote that you and your site goes even further than what is required by GDPR to protect data and you could win over some of your competition’s audience, fans and customers especially if they do not go that extra mile. The cat is out of the bag now and there will be no going backwards where data protection is concerned. Soon it will just be expected that your site is in compliance plus more. So I suggest we all do it now and just avoid any scandal and fines.
If a European Union Resident lands on your USA Realtor site or blog you will want them to sign up and give you some info and contact info. Now technically you could set your website up so it does not ask for data from the EU European Union location visitors but it is quite easy to mess up that screening process especially if you do have forms on your site.
It is easier to just conform to what you know is safer for your site visitors and then of course shout about having complied. Yes, say you are in improvement mode for site visitors and I suggest you also go further and even announce how you are going one or two steps better than the GDPR basics. This will endear you to your website visitors and set you apart in your field of expertise as being very professional as well as the Realtor who takes data security seriously.
When your web visitors feel safe they stay longer and they participate happily on your site or blog. Your visitors are also more apt to recommend your site to their friends when they know it is a safe real estate site. Your other networking partners also will be happier knowing your site and blog is in GDPR compliance. So what does GDPR Compliancy cover?
GDPR concerns the collection of names and identifying aspects of your website visitors; addresses, emails, phone numbers, even blog posts can put you into the danger zone of being fined. You need those things to communicate!
Yes, if a European Union Visitor simply decides to sign up for your newsletter to find out more about the available properties and the realty scene in your USA sales territory then you could be in violation, unless you have taken the steps to make your site GDPR legal.
You simple have to gather and store your visitor data, especially contact info, properly, safely and securely! Anyone that publishes on your website or does IT work on your website needs to know the new rules concerning GDPR.
Every realtor’s site should have a privacy policy posted that makes it easy to understand what you are doing with data collected about your visitors and give them a way to opt out of anything they as visitors do not feel comfortable with. You should have easy to see opt/ins boxes that the visitor must check, in all the appropriate places on your site, whenever you’re asking for personal info.
It is also a good idea to ask everyone already on your opt/in email list to confirm that they still want to receive periotic emails from you. Also if you are asking for people to opt/in to multiple different things on your website then never just assume that an opt/in for one thing means they are opting-in to everything. You need separate opt/in forms for each!
Think of GDPR this way; a lot of websites are already updating their privacy policies and making necessary changes to improve how they handle a visitor’s data. If you do not keep up and improve your website too then your visitors may get nervous about being on your website and not decide to return. Why risk losing fans and potential customers and clients over something that is so easy to accomplish. Get in GDPR Compliance and rest easy and your visitors will rest easy too!
TIPS: Make sure your visitors can contact you fast and easily if they have any questions about your collection of data about them or if they want to complain about something that they are not comfortable with you doing with the info you have about them. When a person opts/out you cannot hold on to their data; it is best to just erase their name and info from your system.
Sure compliance may be a hassle right now for you but it is for everyone’s good and best interest. Foreigners do buy real estate in the States. Some foreigners will land on your website and blog eventually. So legally you could be in jeopardy.
Get into compliance and then Promote that you and your site goes even further than what is required by GDPR to protect data and you could win over some of your competition’s audience, fans and customers especially if they do not go that extra mile. The cat is out of the bag now and there will be no going backwards where data protection is concerned. Soon it will just be expected that your site is in compliance plus more. So I suggest we all do it now and just avoid any scandal and fines.
If a European Union Resident lands on your USA Realtor site or blog you will want them to sign up and give you some info and contact info. Now technically you could set your website up so it does not ask for data from the EU European Union location visitors but it is quite easy to mess up that screening process especially if you do have forms on your site.
It is easier to just conform to what you know is safer for your site visitors and then of course shout about having complied. Yes, say you are in improvement mode for site visitors and I suggest you also go further and even announce how you are going one or two steps better than the GDPR basics. This will endear you to your website visitors and set you apart in your field of expertise as being very professional as well as the Realtor who takes data security seriously.
When your web visitors feel safe they stay longer and they participate happily on your site or blog. Your visitors are also more apt to recommend your site to their friends when they know it is a safe real estate site. Your other networking partners also will be happier knowing your site and blog is in GDPR compliance. So what does GDPR Compliancy cover?
GDPR concerns the collection of names and identifying aspects of your website visitors; addresses, emails, phone numbers, even blog posts can put you into the danger zone of being fined. You need those things to communicate!
Yes, if a European Union Visitor simply decides to sign up for your newsletter to find out more about the available properties and the realty scene in your USA sales territory then you could be in violation, unless you have taken the steps to make your site GDPR legal.
You simple have to gather and store your visitor data, especially contact info, properly, safely and securely! Anyone that publishes on your website or does IT work on your website needs to know the new rules concerning GDPR.
Every realtor’s site should have a privacy policy posted that makes it easy to understand what you are doing with data collected about your visitors and give them a way to opt out of anything they as visitors do not feel comfortable with. You should have easy to see opt/ins boxes that the visitor must check, in all the appropriate places on your site, whenever you’re asking for personal info.
It is also a good idea to ask everyone already on your opt/in email list to confirm that they still want to receive periotic emails from you. Also if you are asking for people to opt/in to multiple different things on your website then never just assume that an opt/in for one thing means they are opting-in to everything. You need separate opt/in forms for each!
Think of GDPR this way; a lot of websites are already updating their privacy policies and making necessary changes to improve how they handle a visitor’s data. If you do not keep up and improve your website too then your visitors may get nervous about being on your website and not decide to return. Why risk losing fans and potential customers and clients over something that is so easy to accomplish. Get in GDPR Compliance and rest easy and your visitors will rest easy too!
TIPS: Make sure your visitors can contact you fast and easily if they have any questions about your collection of data about them or if they want to complain about something that they are not comfortable with you doing with the info you have about them. When a person opts/out you cannot hold on to their data; it is best to just erase their name and info from your system.
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