The Tiger Poet vs. GDPR

The deadline for becoming compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is getting nearer, and as it does so I must confess I'm nowhere nearer to understanding what that means for this blog, or indeed for Blogger in general.

For those of you who are unaware, GDPR is replacing the Data Protection Act 1998, as enacted by EU legislation. It will cover all publishers in EU countries as well as publishers who deal with the EU. As a UK-based blogger using Google Blogger, I and many other people come under that heading. To date, Google has sent out a bunch of emails explaining in broad terms to publishers what the change of legislation means and what they are doing to comply with it. They also explain how individual publishers can take steps to comply, but in terms of guidlines for those using Blogger, the advice has been at best vague and at worst non-existent.

I have searched far and wide to find any statement from Google as to how bloggers using their platform can comply with GDPR. The best I have found so far has been a discussion on a Google Products forum where several bloggers are questioning how Google will help them prepare for when the legislation kicks in on May 25th 2018. Google's response so far has been to issue generic statements asserting their commitment to preparing for GDPR and suggesting that we read their privacy policy or consult a lawyer to find out our obligations. Far from reassuring advice.

So far I've constructed a privacy policy for use on this blog, but an unsure if it will meet with GDPR requirements. Really, this is a call for clarity more than anything else. If anyone out there is reading this post and works for Google, please let me and other bloggers know how we can make our blogs GDPR compliant and how Google will assist us in this. Hopefully making a privacy policy will go some way to achieving this, but unless Google gives us a clearer view of what to do, we may run the risk getting caught out by the new legislation. We need to process people's personal data responsibly and within the law, but if we don't know the rules of play then things will get quite complicated.

I appreciate this is not the usual kind of thing I cover on this blog, but with the deadline for GDPR fast approaching, I think it's something worth talking about. If anyone out there is also confused by what the regulations mean for them, be sure to get in touch with Google to make your concerns known. Thankfully, I've got more fun stuff coming up, so stay tuned and I'll see you all again soon with more poetry. 

NaPoWriMo Completed Again

Okay, so maybe not tomorrow (sorry about that), but here it is. That's the end of NaPoWriMo for this year. Once again I somehow managed to get to the end of April without the poems turning into a stream of incomprehensible free verse.

How do I think it went this year? Mostly the poems turned out okay. I'm thankful that this year I didn't have to rely on my old tropes as much (the tigers, anthropomorphic animals playing musical instruments, or the rolling fields of Frynwys) and tried new things. The month started on a good note with a poem about a confused cuckoo at Easter, and then a poem about poetic structure followed, which is probably my favourite one out of this year's bunch. I hadn't attempted a poem about writing a poem before, so it was nice to set out what my creative writing tutors taught me in verse.

Otherwise, this year's NaPoWriMo was fairly similar to last year's. The usual subjects appeared in the form of animals, the natural world, allusions to music and so on, and of course the tiger came back to finish the month off. There haven't been many breaks from what I usually write about, but I think I made up for it by trying new things with poetic form. Also I should probably do more of the site's prompts next year because I'm certain I didn't try enough of them this time. Still, on the whole this year's NaPoWriMo has been mostly a success.

If you stuck with it to the end I hope you enjoyed the poetic chaos. In regards to what's coming up, I have the next installment of Frynwys Features nearly ready to go, my analysis of Harry Baker's 'Paper People' and a couple of new poems as always, so look out for those over the next few weeks. And the best bit of is, we're just in time for the start of summer.

Goodbye NaPoWriMo 2018, and have a great summer everyone!