In recent years, the GDPR has been a major focus for many businesses. With this new regulation in place, it’s important to understand what GDPR is and how it affects your website.
One of the most debated topics with GDPR is whether or not websites require GDPR checkboxes on forms. In this article we will discuss why you should have checkboxes on your form and when they are required by GDPR regulations.
There can be a lot of confusion and worry around compliance with GDPR. The intention of this post is to provide clarity around GDPR requirements for forms on websites.
For example, a form that is for support requests, where the intended use of the collected data is to send a reply to your question, does not require an additional consent checkbox. Or a contact form where the user is asking a question and the purpose of the information they provide is needed for you to respond to their query.
In short, a checkbox is not required if the user as by submitting a form for its stated use, they give their explicit consent.
If additional uses of the collected data exist, it is therefore a requirements to have an explicit consent checkbox.
The following examples illustrate this point regarding newsletters, it can be much easier than you might realize to remain GDPR compliant.
Conclusion
On forms, as long as the the statement around the frequency and stated use of what will be done with the collected data must be clear.
However, if you will be using the data other than the stated use, you must get consent and detail on what the data will be used for must be explained in your privacy statement.
If you need assistance or help with your website forms, get in touch by email.
