As more and more businesses move online, data privacy and security have become a growing concern. One of the most significant data privacy regulations in recent years is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in the European Union (EU) in May 2018. GDPR is designed to protect EU citizens’ data, and it applies to any website or business that collects, processes, or stores their data, regardless of where the business is located. Adding a GDPR-compliant Captcha to WordPress forms is a crucial step towards ensuring your website is compliant with GDPR regulations. Fortunately, this can be easily achieved with the WP Login Lockdown plugin.
What is a Captcha?
A captcha is a tool used to verify that a user is not a robot or an automated script. Captchas are usually in the form of an image with a series of distorted letters and numbers that the user must decipher and enter into a text field. Captchas are used to prevent spam, brute-force attacks, and other automated scripts from submitting forms on a website.
Why Do You Need a GDPR Compliant CAPTCHA?
Captchas are an effective way to prevent spam and automated scripts from submitting forms, but they can also collect personal data, such as IP addresses, which are considered personal data under GDPR. Therefore, it’s essential to use a GDPR compliant captcha solution to ensure that the data collected is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently. Failure to comply with GDPR can result in hefty fines and reputational damage to your business.
How to Add a GDPR Compliant CAPTCHA to WordPress Forms?
There are several captcha solutions available that are GDPR compliant. In this section, we will discuss how to add Google reCAPTCHA V3 to your WordPress forms.
Step 1: Create a Recaptcha API Key
The first step is to create a reCAPTCHA API key for your website. To do this, go to the Google reCAPTCHA website and sign in with your Google account. Once you’re logged in, click on the “Admin Console” button in the top right corner. Then, click on the “Create” button to create a new reCAPTCHA site. Enter your website’s domain name and select the reCAPTCHA type. For this tutorial, we will select reCAPTCHA V3. Finally, click on the “Submit” button to create your reCAPTCHA API key.
Step 2: Install and Activate a Plugin
Once you’ve created your reCAPTCHA API key, the next step is to install and activate a WordPress plugin that supports reCAPTCHA V3. There are several plugins available, but we recommend using the “Advanced noCaptcha & invisible Captcha (v2 & v3)” plugin by Shamim Hasan.
To install the plugin, go to your WordPress dashboard, click on “Plugins” and then “Add New.” Search for “Advanced noCaptcha & invisible Captcha” and click on the “Install Now” button. Once the plugin is installed, click on the “Activate” button to activate the plugin.
Step 3: Configure the Plugin Settings
After activating the plugin, go to the plugin’s settings page by clicking on “Advanced noCaptcha & invisible Captcha” in the WordPress dashboard. Then, enter your reCAPTCHA API key, which you created in Step 1, in the “reCAPTCHA Settings” section.
Step 4: Add Recaptcha to Your WordPress Form
The final step is to add the reCAPTCHA field to your WordPress form. To do this, go to the form’s settings page and look for the “reCAPTCHA” section. Select “reCAPTCHA V3” as the captcha type and choose the appropriate action score. The action score determines the threshold for considering a user as a human or a bot. For example, if you set the threshold to 0.5, users who score below 0.5 will be considered bots and won’t be able to submit the form.
Once you’ve configured the reCAPTCHA settings, save the form, and it will now have a GDPR compliant captcha field.
Adding a GDPR compliant captcha to your WordPress forms is an important step in protecting your website and complying with GDPR regulations. By using a solution like Google reCAPTCHA V3 and following the steps outlined in this article, you can ensure that the data collected from your forms are processed lawfully and transparently, and your website is protected from spam and automated attacks.
However, it’s important to note that captchas are not foolproof and can sometimes cause frustration for users, especially those with visual or cognitive disabilities. Therefore, it’s essential to strike a balance between security and user experience when implementing captchas on your website. Additionally, it’s crucial to stay up to date with the latest GDPR regulations and best practices to ensure that your website remains compliant and protected.