On 25 May 2018, the GDPR (European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation) officially takes effect. In summary, if your site has user login/register features and is storing user data, and your site is serving EU’s users, you must provide a way for users to delete their own account & data.
In WordPress 4.9.6, in back-end, there is a feature that allows logged-in users to do that. You will find two links in Tools > Export Personal Data and Erase Personal Data.
So, update your WordPress as soon as possible to prevent GDPR violation.
However, that link is only available in back-end and not every sites allow users to visite the admin panel. What should you do to allow users delete personal data from front-end? There is a simple way: using Delete Me Now plugin. The best thing is it’s free and easy to setup.
- Step 1: Install and activate the plugin from Plugins > Add New > search for Delete Me Now
- Step 2: Open any page that is accessible by logged-in users (if your site provide login/register feature, this page should be already available). Add this shortcode to the page content
[plugin_delete_me]
- Step 3 (optional): If case you cannot find the page in step 2, use additional shortcode such as Conditional Tag Shortcode . The page content should be like this
[is_user_logged_in][plugin_delete_me][/is_user_logged_in]
That’s it. Now you are ready to meet GDPR’s requirements. Tell us what you think about this solution 🙂