Should your business implement GDPR whether or not it is required?

[djbaxter]

Is GDPR Coming to the USA?
by Jamie Pitman, BrightLocal
August 2, 2018

TL;DR

• GDPR aims to gives consumers in the EU more rights and information about how their private data is used by businesses.
• Trust in business in the USA stands at just 43% in 2018.
• With trust in business so low, and with members of the US Senate keen to pursue data privacy legislation, it would seem likely that a form of GDPR is on its way to the States.
• Businesses which have already taken steps with EU legislation will find themselves one step ahead should similar legislation come to the USA.

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Do you think a form of GDPR should be introduced in the USA? Would this help to restore trust in big businesses in the US?

Read more...

I already posted my opinion at Brightlocal in the comments:

My feeling is that implementing something similar to GDPR is to be recommended for all forums, whether or not you have members from the EU, and whether or not there is local legislation compelling you to do so.

If it does nothing else, it delivers a clear message to your members that you take their privacy seriously and that you have taken all available measures to secure that information. Additionally, it tells them what they need to do to remove their information and accounts if that is their wish.

It’s only a matter of time before this sort of thing is legislated in non-EU countries in the west as well. Think of GDPR as a wake-up call for forum owners. It’s already woken up consumers (your visitors and subscribers) to their rights and to the issue of how you are safeguarding their data.

And by the way that includes converting your site to HTTPS (SSL), if you haven’t already done so. Asking your members to enter email addresses and passwords on non-encrypted connections is basically saying, “Yeah. We don’t really care if your information is intercepted or stolen – that’s your problem, not ours”.

What do you think?