A social marketing strategy is a plan for using social media platforms to promote a brand, product, or service. Here are the general steps involved in creating and implementing a social marketing strategy:
(1) Define your objectives: Determine what you want to achieve with your social media presence. This could be anything from increasing brand awareness to driving sales.
(2) Identify your target audience: Define your target audience, including demographic information such as age, gender, location, and interests. This will help you create content that resonates with your audience.
(3) Choose your social media platforms: Identify which social media platforms your target audience uses the most, and focus your efforts on those platforms.
(4) Develop your content strategy: Create a plan for the type of content you'll create and share on social media. This could include posts, images, videos, and stories.
(5) Create a social media calendar: Plan out when you'll post content and what you'll post. This will help you stay organized and consistent with your social media activity.
(6) Engage with your audience: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions from your audience. This will help you build relationships and create a sense of community around your brand.
(7) Analyze your results: Use social media analytics tools to track your progress and see how your content is performing. This will help you make adjustments to your strategy and improve your results over time.
Overall, a social marketing strategy is about creating a consistent presence on social media that resonates with your target audience and helps you achieve your business objectives. By following these steps and continually refining your approach, you can create a successful social media presence that supports your overall marketing efforts.
Implementing LazyPredict in a Classification Model
Implementing LazyPredict in a Regression Model
Conclusion
Introduction
The development of machine learning models is being revolutionized by the state-of-the-art Python package known as LazyPredict. By using LazyPredict, we can quickly create a variety of fundamental models with little to no code, freeing up our time to choose the model that would work best with our data.
Model selection may be made easier using the library without requiring considerable parameter adjustment, which is one of its main benefits. LazyPredict offers a quick and effective way to find and fit the best models to our data.
Developers have many options to build a cloud environment using available tools, but today’s complex infrastructure involves numerous interconnected services and processes. To ensure smooth operation amidst daily changes in your production environment, it is crucial to use advanced tools to design and build an elastic cloud environment. These tools can simplify coding and prevent repetitive tasks for you and your team.
Here are some tips that will simplify the code for you and prevent repetition from you and the rest of the team:
Recently, “software supply chain attack” has been breaking all the news headlines. One infamous example is the SolarWinds attack or the 2020 United States federal government data breach. In fact, according to a 2021 report from Gartner:
By 2025, 45% of organizations worldwide will have experienced attacks on their software supply chains, a three-fold increase from 2021.
Monitoring is a small aspect of our operational needs; configuring, monitoring, and checking the configuration of tools such as Fluentd and Fluentbit can be a bit frustrating, particularly if we want to validate more advanced configuration that does more than simply lift log files and dump the content into a solution such as OpenSearch. Fluentd and Fluentbit provide us with some very powerful features that can make a real difference operationally. For example, the ability to identify specific log messages and send them to a notification service rather than waiting for the next log analysis cycle to be run by a log store like Splunk. If we want to test the configuration, we need to play log events in as if the system was really running, which means realistic logs at the right speed so we can make sure that our configuration prevents alerts or mail storms.
The easiest way to do this is to either take a real log and copy the events into a new log file at the speed they occurred or create synthetic events and play them in at a realistic pace. This is what the open-source LogGenerator (aka LogSimulator) does. I created the LogGenerator a couple of years ago, having addressed the same challenges before and wanting something that would help demo Fluentd configurations for a book (Logging in Action with Fluentd, Kubernetes, and more).
Flutter 3.7, the latest version of the popular cross-platform app development framework, was recently released with numerous improvements and new features. This version brings a lot of new advancements in performance, development tools, and framework stability.
Here are some of the new features that Flutter 3.7 has to offer:
On February 15, 2023, Teradata officially withdrew from China after 26 years. As a professional data company like Teradata, I feel so regretful about this. As an editor of WhaleOps, I am also a fan of Teradata, and keep an eye on the development of Teradata’s various product lines. When everyone is thinking about the future of the Teradata data warehouse, they ignore that Teradata actually has a magic weapon, that is, the data warehouse scheduling suite Teradata Automation that comes with the Teradata data warehouse.
The rapid development of Teradata in the world, especially in Greater China, is inseparable from the assistance of Teradata Automation. Today, we are here to remember the history of Teradata Automation and the prospect of the future. We also hope that DolphinScheduler and WhaleScheduler, which have paid tribute to Automation since their birth, can take over the mantle and continue to benefit the next generation of schedulers.
APEX REST callouts are a powerful feature in Salesforce that allows developers to integrate external systems and data sources with their Salesforce orgs. With APEX REST callouts, you can make HTTP requests to external APIs and retrieve data in real time, which can be used to update records, trigger workflows, and perform other actions in your Salesforce org.
APEX REST callouts use the HTTP protocol to communicate with external systems, and they can be used to interact with a wide range of data sources, including REST APIs and custom web services. To make an APEX REST callout, you'll need to write a class that encapsulates the HTTP request and response logic and then call that class from your main APEX code.
In November 2022, the Green Software Foundation organized its first hackathon, “Carbon Hack 2022,” with the aim of supporting software projects whose objective is to reduce carbon emissions. I participated in this hackathon with the Carbon Optimised Process Scheduler project along with my colleagues Kamlesh Kshirsagar and Mayur Andulkar, in which we developed an API to optimize job scheduling in order to reduce carbon emissions, and we won the “Most Insightful” project prize.
In this article, I will summarize the key concepts of “green software” and explain how software engineers can help reduce carbon emissions. I will also talk about the Green Software Foundation hackathon, Carbon Hack, and its winners.
Software testing is the process of verifying the working of the software system or application. In other words, it ensures the software application is bug-free and addresses the technical and user requirements. It not only focuses on finding bugs or errors in the software but also considers measures to enhance the software quality in terms of usability, accuracy, and efficiency.
Suppose you are building a software application that involves writing a bunch of codes and fixing bugs. These are part of the Software Development Life Cycle that developers and testers follow. However, it is their accountability to check or verify the code in line with the requirements and performance of the application.
ChatGPT is a cutting-edge natural language processing model created by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research center founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman. The model was announced in June 2018, and has continuously been modified and upgraded, with the most recent version, GPT-3, being released in 2020. ChatGPT was made from GPT-3, and was released back in 2022. The “GPT” in ChatGPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” a reference to the model’s deep learning architecture. ChatGPT essentially uses massive amounts of text data to “learn” the intricacies of human language, allowing it to create replies that are frequently impossible to differentiate from those of humans. The ChatGPT technology is based on a type of neural network known as a transformer, which is well-suited to natural language processing applications.
ChatGPT’s capacity to create high-quality output to a wide range of prompts you give in the chat box is one of its key features. The response you get feels like it has been generated by a human. You can also specify the conditions of your request. The model was trained on a vast corpus of text, so it can rely on a wide range of data to answer questions, provide information, or participate in casual conversation generated from its neural network. It is crucial to remember; however, that ChatGPT is not flawless. When faced with suggestions that are beyond the model’s area of knowledge, the model may provide illogical or unsuitable replies. ChatGPT usage is sometimes high, and, because of this, there can sometimes be a limit to how many queries you can send.
Disclaimer: All the views and opinions expressed in the blog belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the author's employer or any other group or individual. This article is not a promotion for any course or training platform. The sole objective of this article is to help the AWS community to successfully pass this difficult exam. Also, this article is based on my exam experience, which may differ from any other individual's exam experience.
I am a certified AWS Professional Architect, and with this article, I would like to share my experience and the preparations I took to pass this certification exam. I don't want to share the details that you can get from the AWS Professional Architect Certification page; rather, I would share the topics that you would need to know to pass the exam and the type of questions that you can expect during the exam.
The modernization process aims to enhance the efficiency, agility, and resiliency of an organization's existing IT infrastructure, architecture, and products by implementing the latest technologies, methodologies, and models, such as cloud computing, agile development, automation, and containerization.
To ensure smooth operations when dealing with mission-vital workloads, it is crucial to implement a coexistence strategy that suits the specific use case and technological circumstances. This article focuses on a data synchronization approach for coexistence, which requires phased rollout, and explains how the AWS Data Migration Service was utilized to continuously synchronize data from an on-premise relational database to DynamoDB on the AWS cloud. The article also covers the challenges faced and lessons learned during the implementation process.
KUID, a universally unique identifier, is essentially a shorter version of a UUID and is commonly used to identify records in various applications.
What’s UUID?
A UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is a unique identifier that is widely used across various applications and systems to identify records. It is a 128-bit number typically represented as a sequence of 32 hexadecimal digits, grouped in 5 sections, separated by hyphens, as in the following format: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.
The online shopping industry has grown rapidly over the last decade due to the increasing adoption of technology, changes in consumer behavior, and the growth of e-commerce platforms. The proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices has made it easier for consumers from all around the globe to access the internet and shop online. No wonder e-commerce platforms discovered a new Klondike.
They have revolutionized the way people shop online, providing consumers with a vast selection of products, competitive pricing, and fast shipping. Additionally, modern technologies have made it easier for businesses to create online storefronts and manage inventory and orders while also providing consumers with more personalized shopping experiences.
The RSA algorithm is a commonly used method for secure data transmission in the field of cryptography. It is a type of public-key encryption, which means that it uses two different keys for the encryption and decryption process: a public key and a private key. The public key is used to encrypt the data, while the private key is used to decrypt it.
What Is the RSA Algorithm?
The RSA algorithm is a powerful encryption method that is widely used to protect sensitive information. It is a type of public-key encryption, which means that it uses two different keys for the encryption and decryption process: a public key and a private key. The public key is used to encrypt the data, while the private key is used to decrypt it.
With the exponential growth in digitalization worldwide, organizations hold a large amount of data today. This data can be extracted, cleaned, and used to reveal analytics that was not possible earlier. One can use these numbers to expand web applications, analyze user patterns, and present exactly what they want to see to the user. This can only be unlocked by using an appropriate tool to capture this data and determine usage patterns.
Not only this, but if something is wrong, the tool should be able to identify it and provide solutions that can run the application in the optimum desired space. This hectic work starts after deploying the web application and is as crucial as development because it can take the business down very quickly.
Compliance on websites isn’t a fringe component. It’s a serious, legal matter, which can seriously affect your business.
Legal fees can be expensive, and add up quickly. Also, law is complicated, and can vary based on where you live and do business from. How does one accomplish compliance without getting their own law degree? (Or having a best friend who passed the bar exam?)
There is a way you can dot your I’s and cross your T’s, get all your ducks in a row, check all the boxes, cover your bases (this IS a post about full compliance, so one expression didn’t seem like enough ) – without draining your bank account, or losing your sanity.
Because WordPress is far and above the leading CMS, there are a good number of options when it comes to compliance regulation companion products.
We looked into the pool of offerings, picked the ones we thought were smart, solid, and sound, and are presenting them to you here.
Privacy is a major factor in today’s world, and personal information is protected by a fast-growing assortment of legal rights.
Throughout the first three-quarters of the 20th century, collected data was relatively minimal, there were few ways to store it, and demand for its collective use wasn’t really a thing.
However, from the ’70s through today, as the inherent value of data grew – along with improved methods to collect, store, use, and profit from it – so has the need for legislation to protect it.
Living in the era of Big Data, where the sheer volume of data has increased to previously unimaginable amounts, a true premium has been put on an individual’s rights to protect it.
Non-compliance with the legal safeguards comes with steep fines and other serious penalties.
A Timeline of Enacted Privacy Protections
While data protections may have started slowly, they will continue to pick up speed as the by-product of ethical examination and pivotal litigations surrounding privacy.
Let’s take a peek at the landmark protections in the history of privacy legislation.
The Privacy Act of 1974 established the Code of Fair Information Practice on the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information from US federal agencies.
The Data Protection Directive was adopted by The European Union in 1995. The principles set forth were aimed at the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in the processing of personal data. This was superseded by the GDPR in 2018.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was established in 1996 to protect Personally Identifiable Information maintained by the healthcare and health insurance industries from theft and fraud, safeguarding people’s medical information from being used without their consent.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was enacted by Congress in 1998 and requires the Federal Trade Commission to issue and enforce regulations concerning children’s online privacy. The amended Rule became effective on July 1, 2013.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data protection and privacy became law in 2018 in the European Union (EU).
The GDPR applies to the transfer of personal data outside of the EU and EEA (the European Economic Area is the countries of Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein), and replaced the Data Protection Directive from 1995.
Shortly thereafter, State Privacy Legislations in the US started…
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – signed into law 2018; effective 2020
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) – also known as CCPA 2.0, enacted in 2020
Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) – legislated in 2021; effective January 1, 2023
Colorado’s Privacy Act – will be effective July 1, 2023
Connecticut’s Personal Data Privacy and Online Monitoring Act – will be effective July 1, 2023
Utah’s Consumer Privacy Act – will be effective December 31, 2023
While the US does not have a single, comprehensive, internet privacy law, one is currently being proposed by federal privacy legislation: the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). If passed into law, it will supersede all state privacy laws. Until then, it’s up to individual states to pass legislation that protects customer data.
Which Components Do You Need?
At this point you may be wondering, with so many already existing and soon-to-be-effective legal stipulations on data, which ones are you required to adhere to as a website or app owner?
That’s what we’ll lay out now in…
Compliance Requirements
To best meet overall compliance, websites should minimally have:
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
… and …
Consent (Record of Consent)
Let’s put a pin in Consent for a bit, and come back to it after we look at the policies.
A Privacy Policy addresses all the different ways your website or app might collect, process, and store data from users, both online and off.
A Cookie Policy specifically addresses how you use cookies and third-party services.
Because of the overlap, websites sometimes include a cookie policy in their privacy policy, as part of the overall data collection.
However, cookie policies need to be regularly updated (as cookies are dynamic and often change upon successive visits), whereas policy policies tend to be static.
More importantly, if you fall under the scope of the GDPR, your Cookie Policy must be separate from your Privacy Policy.
You can still incorporate a short Cookie Clause in your Privacy Policy, or cross-reference the agreements (for example, link your Cookie Policy to your Privacy Policy), but you shouldn’t combine the agreements into one.
Even if you don’t fall under the scope of GDPR, it’s safer and smarter to create a separate Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, instead of merging them into one.
Let’s dive a little deeper into both of these important policies.
Privacy Policies
Most laws around the world require a privacy policy.
Privacy policies are legally required agreements when collecting any personal data from users (e.g. payment details, address and phone number, cookie data), regardless of the platform used (e.g. website, mobile app, desktop app, etc).
You may need a privacy policy to use third-party APIs and services (e.g. Instagram, Google Analytics, or Google Adsense), or to list your app in a commercial marketplace such as the Apple App or Google Play stores.
Without a privacy policy, you risk your business getting hit with hefty fines and/or having your website taken down, especially if you’re found to be in breach of privacy laws.
Key privacy policies or agencies, by country of origin are:
Europe/European Union – GDPR (businesses in or operating with EU/EEA)
United States – by state (CCPA, CPRA, CalOPPA, VCDPA)
Canada – PIPEDA
Australia – The Privacy Act 1988
Germany – BDSG, and DSGVO (German name for the GDPR)
France – CNIL (the commission overseeing privacy policies)
South Africa – The POPI Act (POPIA)
Brazil – LGPD (broadly aligns with the GDPR)
Lesser-known privacy laws exist around the world as well; the above is not to be considered an exhaustive list.
While privacy policies are generally referred to by location of origin, they can extend to any region that does business with them. Meaning, don’t assume that if you reside outside of Europe that the GDPR doesn’t apply to you.
The EU’s GDPR and US state laws (#1 and #2) are the most broadly reaching and widely followed privacy policies. But that’s not to say that the others don’t matter; it’s important to research any that might apply to your business.
Cookie Policies
Cookie policies are legally binding documents that inform website or app users how a company engages in data tracking and online privacy.
Cookie identifiers are considered to be personal data by the GDPR, so its rules apply to cookie usage as well. Also, any personal data collected by cookies falls under the GDPR’s jurisdiction.
The ePrivacy Directive (ePD) of the EU – nicknamed the “Cookie Law” – requires security measures be put in place to protect personal data. This regulates cookie usage, email marketing, data minimization, and other aspects of data privacy, and is largely responsible for the cookie consent forms that you encounter on most websites today. (Sidebar: This doesn’t replace the Cookie Law I grew up with; “Don’t ever serve chocolate chippers without milk.”)
The ePrivacy Regulation (ePR), the details of which are currently being hammered out by legislators, will replace the ePD once it’s passed into law.
Consent / Record of Consent
Taking out that pin that we placed earlier, it’s time to look at Consent.
The important distinction between Policy and Consent is this: Policy discloses details regarding the use of cookies, while Consent informs and records the allowances from users regarding usage.
Make sure you incorporate consent into your Privacy/Cookie policies. Full GDPR compliance means storing proof of Consent, and being able to demonstrate or retrieve details should they be requested.
I can’t stress this enough: having Privacy/Cookie policies without consent could cause major problems for you.
Additional Legal Protections
While protecting user data is of paramount importance, privacy isn’t the only concern for someone managing websites.
There are other important, legal considerations when it comes to engaging the public online.
We’ll take a look at them now.
Terms & Conditions
Unlike Privacy Policies, there are no laws that require you to have a Terms & Conditions agreement, though it is highly suggested to have one.
Without a T&C, it’s much more difficult to enforce your rules and community guidelines, copyright protection, or other issues that could arise from the misuse of your website/app content.
The majority of the public will act courteously, but that’s not who you’re protecting yourself from. It’s the small percentage of outliers who can sometimes do the most damage. Having explicitly stated Terms & Conditions can offer basic protections for you and your business, limiting your liability and declaring your rights over the content you create, in case anyone engages in abuse, intellectual property theft, or unlawful behavior.
The most common reasons for Terms & Conditions are to:
Prevent abuses
Protect your creative content
Terminate accounts
Limit your legal liability
Set your governing law
If you’ve ever seen a clause in a T&C stating where (geographic region) any dispute resolution must take place, that falls under governing law, and is quite useful if you don’t want to litigate legal matters in a country outside of your own.
Disclaimers
Disclaimers can be used to offset liability from a business to a client in ambiguous or gray legal areas, or where they are required by law.
Without them, you are opening yourself up to legal liability or the possible endangerment of others, especially on sites that share advice, DIYs, or promote/sell products (most of which come with claims).
Websites and eCommerce stores benefit from disclaimers in that they:
Let users/customers know that the content is not legally binding advice, nor should it be solely relied on
Limit the liability of the website/store in the event someone has an unsatisfactory result from its advice or products
Some of the most common disclaimer types are:
Copyright
Fair Use
No Responsibility
Views Expressed
Offensive Content
Past Performance
Errors and Omissions
Affiliates / Affiliate Links
While we’re on the subject, here’s an example in actual use:
Disclaimer: WPMU DEV is not a legal entity, nor does it claim to be an authority on the laws of any region, country, or the internet. While this post contains well-researched content from respected sources, it is for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for professional legal advice. As such, we cannot be held liable for any omissions or errors contained within.
That said, let’s get to the tools and services of the compliance trade, with…
Our Top 5 Picks for Compliance Companions
Some of these are actual WordPress plugins, while others are content generated directly in the company’s website.
Regardless of how you access them, all offer plenty of bang for the buck, and value for the venue (I’m coining this phrase to mean free products and their providers ).
GDPR Cookie Consent and Cookie Yes (by WebToffee)
WebToffee has a sisterhood of plugins, with versions available on two separate websites: CookieYes and WebToffee, plus the free version on the WordPress repository.
CookieYes is one of the most used WordPress GDPR cookie compliance plugins, with 1 million+ active installations and 5 out of 5 stars.
Starting with the free WP.org plugin version, you get a goodly amount of features, including:
a cookie consent banner with Accept/Reject options
single click automatic scanning and categorization of cookies
display list of cookies on your cookie policy page by using a shortcode
adds a cookie banner to your WordPress website to show compliance with GDPR
fully customize the cookie notice so it blends with your existing website (change colors, fonts, styles, position on page; even how it behaves when you click “Accept All”)
has a Cookie List module so you can easily show what cookies your site uses and display them neatly in a table on your Privacy & Cookies Policy page
can be configured to have a CCPA/CPRA ‘Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information’ control to the cookie notice
The free version also includes a connection (also free) with the CookieYes web app to access advanced features (cookie scan, consent log, etc) and manage all settings from the web app account. Note: You can still use most of the features from within the WP dashboard, without connecting to the web app.
The CookieYes dashboard gives you a nice snapshot of information.
One of the advantages here is the dashboard, which includes a Consent section. You can view or access details on user consent should you ever be audited and need to show this information. It even allows you to download this consent data in CSV format.
From the WP plugin dashboard, there’s a lot you can do:
Check banner status (active, inactive), regulation type (GDPR), last cookie scan, language
Customize banner
Maintain cookie list, add new cookies
Change/edit default banner language
Generate a Privacy or Cookie policy for your site
Add the user guide provided for setup, along with a video walkthrough, and you can see why this plugin is so well loved.
CookieYes banner and consent customizations.
If you want to go for a CookieYes paid plan, you have three tier options, payable per domain, monthly or annually. Each tier adds more pages per scan (600, 4K, 8K) and pageviews (100K, 300K, unlimited), plus a couple of additional features – like custom branding, and geo-targeted cookie banners.
As a third option here, we have the paid, premium version of GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin (CCPA Ready) – available from WebToffee’s website.
The final offering in the WebToffee family of compliance options, GDPR Cookie Consent remains in the territory of fastest-growing WP consent plugins, verifiable by a mass of happy users.
GDPR Cookie Consent offers a variety of notices, all with customization.
As far as features, most are available and common to both the GDPR Cookie Consent and the CookieYes paid plans. However, the GDPR Cookie Consent plans do not have:
Auto-translation
Global privacy control
Do not track
Monthly scheduled scan
Privacy policy generator
GDPR Cookie Consent pricing has three tiers, based on the number of sites (1, 5, 25) you want to use it on. Each includes one year of updates and support, and a 30-day, money-back guarantee.
The primary difference between The GDPR Cookie Consent and CookieYes paid plans is the technology they rely on. The CookieYes web app is a SaaS that requires huge cloud computing, storage, and security facilities. (This is also why the CookieYes paid plans are based on scans and pageviews.)
Bonus points for their support: I reached out as a free user to clarify a few points in this section and got a detailed response in less than half a day. (High five to Mark!)
iubenda
Iubenda has been quickly rising in the ranks of compliance with their all-in-one solution, currently sitting at 100K+ active installs and a 5/5 star rating on WP.
If you’re looking for that extra layer of comfort, iubenda has it, with attorney-level compliance solutions, all of which are fully WCAG Level AAA Compliant.
The free version of iubenda compliance solutions support the GDPR, LGPD, and US State Laws (CCPA/CPRA and VCDPA).
Content is auto-updated when laws change, so it’s always up-to-date. (Their built-in site scanner runs periodic scans on your site and alerts you if it detects something that should be added to your compliance documents.)
The free version comes with the following features:
Privacy and Cookie Policy Generator
a single policy, on one site, in one language
up to 4 (non-Pro) service clauses
does not include Cookie Policy
Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution
up to 25K page views/month (for compliance with GDPR, LGPD & ePrivacy and US state laws)
iubenda privacy controls and cookie solution settings.
The majority of iubenda’s standout features are found in their paid/pro versions, trusted by over 90,000 clients in more than 100 countries. These allow for multiple policies, sites, and languages, as well as Privacy Control & Cookie Solutions, a Terms & Conditions generator, a Consent Database, and more.
Privacy Control & Cookie Solutions helps you meet complex legal requirements at the click of a button, as well as create a fully customizable cookie banner.
Terms & Conditions offers powerful features like plug-and-go integrations for popular platforms and legislation monitoring. It’s customizable from hundreds of combinations, available in 10 languages, and capable of handling even the most complex, individual scenarios. Optimized for eCommerce, marketplace, SaaS, apps and more.
The Consent Database activates with one click to track, store, and manage consent and privacy preferences for each of your users all in one place, allowing you to easily upload proofs of consent and legal notices in PDF format.
They also offer an Internal Privacy Management, which documents all the data processing activity within your organization. To comply with privacy laws (particularly the GDPR), companies must record how they store and use the data they collect from their users.
Additional features in the paid plans are:
More Compliance Laws, like DSGVO, RGPD, UK-GDPR, CalOPPA, PECR
Cookie consent analytics provided for high-traffic sites
Detects bots/spiders and serves them a clean page so that your SEO efforts are never compromised
Built-in compatibility with WordPress comment form, Contact Form 7, and WP Forms; can also be manually integrated with any type of web-form
Pricing is offered as bundles with 3 tiers, based on number of license slots, with paid add-ons – Terms & Conditions, and Consent Database – available as extras.
Or, you can go with their Custom plans, with 3 tiers, broken out by options for Privacy & Cookie Policy, Privacy Controls & Cookie Solution, and Terms & Conditions.
iubenda’s pricing models with inclusions listed.
Head over to iubenda’s website for a more in-depth read about their compliance offerings, or to purchase one of their plans.
TermsFeed
TermsFeed doesn’t have a plugin; everything is generated directly from their website. But in no way does that detract from their fantastic functions.
The TermsFeed website has an abundance of compliance offerings, most of which they charge nothing for.
Since 2012, TermsFeed’s all-in-one compliance software has helped businesses get (and stay) compliant with the law, and the multitude of glowing, five-star reviews corroborates that.
Popular free features include:
Privacy Policy Generator
Terms & Conditions Generator
Privacy Consent
Cookie Consent
EULA Generator – gives users the right to use a copy of your product after they acquire it, through a granted license (with or without limitations)
Disclaimer Generator
Return and Refund Policy Generator
Shipping Policy Template – no generator for this, but a detailed, helpful template to assist businesses in creating
They also offer these additional, not-as-common free tools:
CCPA Opt-out – Free tool to manage opt-outs for CCPA
I Agree Checkbox – Free tool to enforce your legal agreements and policies on web forms
Embed Consent – Free tool to block embeds (YouTube, Twitter, Google Maps) from loading until you’ve got user consent
The TermsFeed site has a ton of helpful, visually appealing infographics.
All of the generators operate in the same, simple three-step: 1) Create a free account. 2) Choose what you need. 3) Download and integrate.
You answer a few quick questions, and your custom policy is ready in minutes, available to download in multiple file formats – which you can link to, edit, or update.
Or, download their handy privacy policy template (available in a variety of formats: HTML, DOCX, Google Docs), and write your own.
And the output isn’t limited to just websites; you can use it to create for mobile apps, eCommerce stores, third-party tools, SaaS, and even a Facebook page.
The TermsFeed website is well organized and chock full of helpful information, making an easy task out of finding what you need.
The majority of compliance agreements and policies on the TermsFeed website are essentially free. However, they do offer some optional, premium agreements with additional clauses to protect your business interests.
Paid items are available in two ways:
Privacy Consent Solution, which gives you access to all features, payable month-to-month, or yearly (with a discount).
Per Policy/Agreement, which allows you to select any number of policies from their huge compliance toolbox, and pay a one-time fee, per item
Both payment structures come with a 7-day refund policy, and 100% money-back guarantee.
A summary recap of Privacy Policy blog articles in TermsFeed.
As far as videos, walk-through processes, and documentation go, out of all the sites I reviewed in this article, they had the most. On YouTube alone, I counted close to 200 explainer videos (on their content specifically, and policy terminology in general), plus dozens of tutorials for using on a myriad of website types (Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify, etc) in addition to WordPress.
My final thoughts: the TermsFeed website is an embarrassment of riches, with compliance offerings galore, and little to no limitations on their use. Even the premium, paid-for options won’t break the bank.
Visit the TermsFeed website for tools, tips, and custom provisions, or their YouTube channel for a ton of valuable, well-produced info.
Complianz
Complianz is another widely used compliance plugin, available for free on the WP repository: Cookie Consent – aka the Privacy Suite for WP. (They offer an additional one for Terms & Conditions as well.)
Active installations are at 600K (and climbing), and rated 5/5 stars.
Complianz is a GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent plugin that supports GDPR, ePrivacy, and more, with a conditional Cookie Notice and customized Cookie Policy, based on the results of their built-in Cookie Scan.
Free features include:
Cookie Notice configuration for your specific region (EU, UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada; or use one Cookie Notice worldwide)
Cookie Consent and Conditional Cookie Notice with custom CSS and customizable templates
Automatic configuration of your website based on wizard questions, WordPress scans, and dedicated service and plugin integrations
Proof of Consent for user registration (respects GDPR data minimization guideline)
Automatically detects if you need a Cookie Notice (aka Cookie Banner or popup)
Cookie policy generation through an easy wizard
Offers “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” (for CCPA/CPRA)
Complianz is one of the few WordPress native solutions, integrated with a wide variety of plugins and services. Once configured through the wizard, Complianz will work with most of your plugins and embedded content – right out of the box. Including our very own Forminator, Beehive, and the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin (where you can integrate Complianz to allow site visitors to reject dashboard analytics statistics cookies).
Like iubenda, their policies are drafted by an IT Law Firm, and are WCAG Level AA and ADA Compliant. They closely follow the latest developments in ePrivacy regulation, the proposed Cookie Law for the EU, and other legislation worldwide, so you can be sure the content is spot-on, legally speaking.
Complianz also has premium, paid offerings for compliance, available from their own website.
Their website has documentation, and as a premium user, you get dedicated support from privacy professionals and developers who (and I quote) “don’t quit until a solution is reached”.
Complianz offers a full privacy suite for WordPress.Legal docs and Consent Management offerings on Complianz, free vs paid.
Easily install the free Complianz Privacy Suite plugin from your WordPress dashboard. For the premium version, you’ll need to download from your account on Complianz.io, or use the link in your purchase confirmation, along with your license key.
In addition to the free version, paid plans are offered as 3 tiers, priced per number of sites (25, 5, 1). All include the full shebang of required legal documents, compliant in multiple regions, along with records of consent, data request processing, A/B testing and statistics, and detailed cookie descriptions.
Termly
While Termly does have a plugin on the WP.org repository, it’s outdated, and I don’t recommend using it. But that doesn’t make their compliance options any less capable or appealing.
Instead of the WP repo, head over to Termly’s website, where everything you need is easily accessible and kept fully up to date.
Compliance solution offerings from Termly.
The Termly website comes with a host of features, ranging from a single policy to a full suite of compliance solutions.
Here’s a breakdown of Termly’s top features:
Consent Management Platform
Manage consent on your website or app while providing a robust and flexible solution to compliment your business needs and regulatory requirements
Policy Generators
Choose from the ever-expanding list of legally vetted policies to protect your business and meet your compliance needs
Additional Legal Protection Generators
Easily create other Agreements and Notices to further protect your website (like: Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers, EULAs, Shipping Policies, Refund and Return Generators)
Termly’s all-in-one cookie consent solution.
Termly’s free plan provides you with one legal policy, four edits, and 10K/month banner visitors, as well as their basic compliance tools, which are:
Privacy Regulation Monitoring
Cookie Policy & Banner
Cookie Script Auto Blocker
HTML Embeddable Policies
Quarterly cookie scans
In addition to their free/basic plan, Termly offers 3 paid tiers, priced per website. The first two go by number of policies, policy edits, and banner visits, and are payable per month or annually. The third tier is a custom “contact us” option.
With 4.5 out of 5 star rating on Trustpilot, Termly is trusted and revered by thousands.
Better Compliance and Reliance with WPMU DEV
As you can see, responsible data management is not only good business practice, it’s also the law.
In today’s landscape where massive amounts of data, along with infinitely more ways to store and use it are the norm, diligence is required in its care and handling, especially if you operate an online business (your own, or as an Agency for clients).
Regardless of what kind of business it is, where it is located, or where your visitors reside, you are bound by certain legalities.
Ignorance is not a defense, so compliance can be the difference between being successfully safe or professionally sunk.
Beyond research and recommendations for meeting compliance requirements, WPMU DEV works hard to keep your websites and web development business operating at peak efficiency.
That includes our free products and services, and our premium membership offerings – a suite of pro plugins (protection, optimization, form creation, SEO, and more), five-star always-on support, and sleek all-in-one site management tool. Plus our fast, dedicated, best-value-in-the-biz Hosting.
) – without draining your bank account, or losing your sanity.
).
