26 Mar How GDPR will affect WiFi providers
Nowadays as a consumer we often take fast and reliable WiFi for granted and expect such a service from all public places from bars and restaurants to waiting rooms and universities. For such businesses, offering free WiFi can be a great way to attract guests to spend more time and money at their venue. From just a simple guest login, providers are able to generate marketing data from the customer credentials obtained through the registration process. The GDPR new legislation which takes effect on 25 May 2018, applies to any organisation that handles EU residents’ personal data. As a business, if you are providing customers with WiFi, GDPR will particularly effect the terms and conditions for your WiFi service. In short terms, the conditions your customers agree to must be very exact about which data you are collecting, why you are collecting it and how you intend to use it in the future. For example, such information should allow the public to decide whether they would like to receive promotional, marketing material and and the ability for the public to opt-in for any marketing, as well as providing them with clear instructions as to how they can opt-out whenever they like. At the moment, a lot of public WiFi is provided for free by public establishments, however, in light of GDPR, that may be set to change. A huge benefit for some companies using a hotspot stems selling data that’s currently obtained, to marketing companies, this often offsets the cost for customer usage. However, new legislation will clamp down on anyone who processes data and those who do will need a legitimate reason to do so; they must process as little data as is necessary for that purpose and only use it for that specific reason to avoid being penalised. There are six lawful bases for collecting data, and consent is the least preferable because it can be hard to obtain and maintain. However, in this instance many organisations will find themselves having to rely on it. As a business, If you are thinking about or currently providing public WiFi and would like to ensure that you’re data processing is completely compliant get in touch today.