In August 2020, the General Data Protection Law will come into effect in Brazil. It will impact all companies that handle personal information, from a store to a news portal that uses it. Cookies and forms. The new law will change the way companies interact with customers, increasing transparency and public trust in brands when providing personal information. Those who do not comply with the LGPD may face penalties, such as blocked data collection, and fines.
For a website to comply with the law, users need to know what data is being collected about them, such as their behavior on the page, their history, interests, location, device, operating system, etc. Often, everything a user needs to know about the management of their data will be in the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Terms of Use. If your website doesn't yet have these documents, take advantage of this time before the law comes into effect to create them.
Knowing this, however, is not enough: the person visiting your website needs to consent to the collection of information about them. And this consent cannot be mandatory to access the page; that is, if the user decides not to share their data through cookies, they should be able to use the website normally.
Performing a website diagnosis
First of all, it's necessary to know how compliant your website already is with the LGPD (Brazilian General Data Protection Law). To do this, you need to check the criteria required by the law. A website diagnostic aimed at data protection will identify cookies that collect personal information, the presence of a consent banner for their use, links to privacy policies, forms, and other aspects.
A Privacy Tools This free diagnostic tool is available for any type of website. Simply register on the platform and add up to one domain per user. The diagnostic is ready in minutes and shows all points of non-compliance, so they can be improved before the law comes into effect in 2020.
Creating your policies
As we've already mentioned, privacy policies and similar documents need to contain all the information a user should know about the collection and use of their data. Therefore, each website should have a page with these policies, and they should also be linked in the cookie consent banner.
On the Privacy Tools platform, customers who have already subscribed to one of our plans have access to ready-made policy templates. These were developed by the platform's legal team to be customized by each client. The Privacy system itself also links to the policies within the cookie consent banner, so that users have access to more information before accepting or rejecting data collection.
Be careful with the forms.
Forms are a very common way to collect customer information, serving to obtain the contact details of those who requested a quote, materials, etc. However, those who fill out a form also need to give their consent for this data to be used by the company.
For your website to comply with the LGPD (Brazilian General Data Protection Law), forms must include an option for users to confirm whether they wish to receive emails, messages, SMS, etc. Users should also know that they can revoke their consent at any time if they no longer wish to receive content from your brand. Each email sent should include a registration link allowing the user to unsubscribe from your contact list.
Finally, it's important that all websites maintain a transparent relationship with visitors regarding the collection and use of their data. This will gradually become a culture that fosters respect for online privacy and allows people to be more aware of what is being collected about them.
