What is it?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It became law in the EU on May 25, 2018.

When GDPR took effect, many of us were inundated with emails about new privacy policies from the services we use. A policy update now and then isn't unusual, but it was rare for so many services to send them out all at once. After years in development, the date set by the European Commission had arrived, and its sweeping regulation on data protection was now law for all European citizens.

How does this help me?

GDPR grants some specific rights to citizens of the EU. The biggest one is the right to have your account and all your personal information permanently deleted, and the company holding it must comply with that request in a timely fashion. You can also object to the use of your personal data for marketing purposes. Don't worry, none of that is happening here anyway. You can, and should, read more about those rights here.

How does this affect my account?

Truth be told, we've always taken your data seriously. Once GDPR arrived, we added some things to further honor the spirit of the new law:

• A shorter data retention policy for live data, so that only the most recent 90 days are stored in our database.

• Downloadable archival data in a machine-readable format to allow for data portability.

• The option to permanently delete a specific contact's record from our database.

• Total account deletion upon request.

What if I'm not a citizen of the EU?

Then you can thank your nearest EU friend for raising the standard for how companies on the internet treat their contacts' data. To comply with the new law, most companies that operate on the internet are choosing to follow the same guidelines for all of their users anywhere in the world. Companies aren't technically required to honor the law for non-EU citizens, but they ought to, and we should all pressure them to if they aren't.

I'm still not sure what this all means

No problem. We're happy to answer any questions you have or clarify anything that's unclear.