What is GDPR Hosting and How Will it Impact Your Website?

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March 17, 2020
What is GDPR Hosting and How Will it Impact Your Website?

What is GDPR and How Will it Impact Your Website Hosting?


GDPR stands for General Data Protection and Regulation. It is a regulator law in the European Union that is focused on protecting user data and privacy within the EU as well as the European Economic Area (EEA). The laws also apply to how data can be transferred outside of the EU and EEA regions. The goal of GDPR is to help ensure individuals are able to control their own personal data online. It also helped to make the regulatory environment easier to understand for businesses (especially international businesses).

GDPR Hosting Outside the EU


Some people make the mistake of thinking that if they don’t live in the EEA, or they choose a hosting company that is not based in the EEA, that they don’t have to worry about GDPR. The reality is, however, that GDPR was established to protect the citizens in the EEA no matter what websites they access. This means if EU citizens are using your website, you need to be GDPR compliant.

Of course, the EU courts aren’t going to be able to arrest you and may not even been able to impose any fines, if you are outside the region. That being said, however, they can take steps to enforce these laws. This is especially true if a business or website is offering goods or services to those within the EEA. While the GDPR laws may seem complicated and difficult at first, it really isn’t overly challenging to keep your website in compliance. If you plan to have any visitors from the EEA accessing your site, it is well worth the effort to comply with these laws. This starts with choosing a good GDPR compliant web hosting service, such as we offer here at Verpex.

Best GDPR Web Hosting


So, does the GDPR have any hosting requirements associated with it? Well, the GDPR laws are still not entirely clear about what requirements a site owner will have when it comes to choosing web hosting. Some people argue that since a web hosting company is where the user data is actually stored (in most cases) that the hosting provider needs to be GDPR compliant, even if it is outside the EU. Others say that while the hosting company houses the data, it is the website owner that actually controls and manages it, so there is no need for the hosting company to take relevant safety and compliance measures.

As of now, there hasn’t been any official ruling from the EU courts. When choosing a hosting company, however, you want to make sure that your site doesn’t suddenly fall outside of current law should the courts decide to require hosting providers to be GDPR compliant. It is also important to note that any hosting company that operates in or serves customers from, the EU or EEA does have to follow all GDPR requirements.

Fortunately, Verpex already does everything possible to keep customer data safe and is committed to never using the data for their own purposes. Here at Verpex we will absolutely never access the data you gather from visitors, and our security measures always follow the best industry standards. This means that no matter what direction the EU decides to go with GDPR regulations, you can be confident your hosting is in compliance if you are with Verpex.

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Acting Responsibly with User Data


As a website owner there really isn’t a lot of extra work required for remaining GDPR compliant in most cases. The laws are primarily going to apply if you plan to collect, use, or sell data that is from visitors to your website. Putting up the required notices, privacy policies, and other related documentation is one of the biggest things that a webmaster will need to do. Fortunately, most major content management systems (like WordPress, etc) will have either built-in compliance options or plugins that can make compliance simple.

Choosing a good GDPR compliant hosting provider and making sure you have the necessary notices on your site, are a great place to start. Beyond that, just make sure you aren’t selling or improperly using visitor data and you shouldn’t run into any issues. This is especially true if you aren’t actively targeting customers or visitors in the EU, which is when the bulk of the regulations really start to become relevant.

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