Photo by Ben Kolde on Unsplash

Have you ever recommened or reviewed something on your blog? Have you tagged brands, friends, and places on Instagram? Have you ever thought twice about it?

The other week, I posted my ‘Monthly Favorites”. It’s been a regular post on my blog for a while and it’s one of my favorite posts to write. Not because it’s life-changing content (it isn’t), but because I simply love sharing the good stuff with you guys. And I appreciate when you share the good stuff with me, too. That’s what friends do.

However, I read something last week that made me stop and contemplate if it is ok to just “recommend” (and link) things on my blog and social media anymore. There are so many rules now.

Just to be clear, I am not making money of this blog (or other social media platforms) and I have never posted anything because I was asked to post a review or because I was offered something in return.

I have shared referral links in the past, but I always disclosed that they were referral links (where you and I might get a small incentive to try a service), but I want to emphasize again: those were never direct cooperations with the companies of these products. I wasn’t asked to pass them out, in fact, you’re not really supposed to “advertise” them, but only give them to friends and family. If you’re a customer, those referral links are automatically given out so you can spread the word if you’re happy with the services/goods they’re providing. That is also how mouth-to-mouth propaganda works.

So, what about sponsored content?

According to what I googled and read about the topic (and I honestly hadn’t really thought too much about it before), there only is a need to disclose that you’re writing/posting sponsored content when you actually have a relationship with a specific brand or company, which means you get paid or compensated to talk about them and share their products. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has an endorsement guide about disclosing a material connection between advertisers and endorsers. 

If there’s a connection between an endorser and the marketer that consumers would not expect and it would affect how consumers evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed.

It specifically says that if you have no business relationship with a product or business that you’re promoting, you don’t have to disclose. It also says that if you’re including links to product marketers or to retailers as a convenience to your readers, but are not getting paid for them, then there isn’t anything to disclose.*

Phew. Ok. That seems logical and reasonable, right? 

Well, hold your horses.

Here’s what’s happening in Germany.

I am bringing this up, because I’ve recently become aware that, apparently, the EU (in general, and Germany in particular) has been going a little bit crazy lately with privacy laws, copyright restrictions, and yes, also covert advertisement warnings.

I’ve read that people (sorry, this is in German, but maybe you can use Google Translate to get the gist) got sued (or run the risk of being sued) for tagging places or companies in their Instagram pictures, because they didn’t label them as “advertisement”, even though they only shared it for fun and were not affiliated or compensated for anything.

I heard that some even got sued for tagging a friend — a FRIEND! — on Instagram, because it was suspected (with no factual basis, as far as I know)  that the friend “compensated” them to do so.

This is a little bit insane.

Who is affected? 

So far, it looks like the people that were targeted had larger follower numbers and had posted sponsored content before. The (maybe false) assumption is that if you posted sponsored content once, everything going forward is potentially sponsored content.  So, while these new “rules” mainly target influencers, it pretty much has all German bloggers and social media users currently in a tizzy because everybody is confused and worried about how to use social media “correctly” in order to not get sued. I mean, as if the GDPR wasn’t enough already.

It also raises a few questions for me: When exactly is someone considered an influencer? Just exactly how many followers do I have to have to be considered an influencer? I am assuming that people with large followings are looked at first, but who says that you can’t have a ‘professional looking’ Instagram account and many, many followers without posting any ‘sponsored’ content? This is where the line gets blurry and where the grey zone begins.

I think the rule should simply be (and apparently is in the US right now) that you have to disclose if it IS sponsored content, you don’t have to disclose if you bought something with your own money and just recommend it to your followers. Period.

But the recent cease-and-desist warnings in Germany have practically led people to label EVERYTHING as advertisement (just to be on the safe side), even if they haven’t been compensated, are not affiliated with a brand, and have not been asked to mention a product, restaurant, place, or friend (← still can’t get over this one!).

I’ve been seeing all these (German) Instagram posts now that have a disclaimer at the beginning of each and every post that something is Werbung (advertisement) (as it should be), but also that something isn’t Werbung (Werbung ohne Auftrag – advertisement without contract).

Labeling everything as advertisement can’t be the answer.

If everything is labeled as ‘advertisement’ now, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of actually making real advertisement stand out to the audience? Doesn’t it mean that the desired distinction between sponsored and not-sponsored posts is being lost?

It seems like you can’t do anything on the Internet anymore without running the risk of being sued.  I understand that covert advertising and sharing content without proper credit or disclosure are a big no-no (as they should be), but this is going a little bit too far.

I mean think about it, why is it ok to wear a t-shirt with a big brand logo in public, but you can’t wear the same t-shirt in a picture because you’re running the risk of being accused of advertising for the company? How often do we recommend something to a friend or co-worker, share where we bought a piece of clothing or home decor, or, or, or… . We should probably walk around with a #advertisement sign around our necks because that kind of advertising happens all the time. 

Technically, these are all endorsements that encourage someone to go buy that same thing from that brand. The difference is that we’re not compensated for this kind of recommendation and I don’t think we shouldn’t be punished for it either. 

A word of caution

I went back and purposefully looked through my Instagram again and I must say there are a ton of posts where people tag brands and companies, restaurants, cafés and places (me included) and there is no mentioning of advertisement (because I assume you, like me, don’t have sponsored content or otherwise you disclose it).

I assume that people, like me, tag on Instagram because this is what social media is for:  we share because we like something and tag as a convenience to our readers. (Not sure how often I have been asked about an item or place in my pictures, so why not include the information from the get-go?)

However, I’ve definitely also seen posts that potentially *could* be sponsored posts and which are not properly labeled. I am not trying to stir up a discussion, it’s just something that I am more aware of now and maybe you should be, too. The FTC is not taking this to the level of Germany (yet), but there are rules in place that people should know about.  If you are working with a company, make sure you’re on the right side, legally-speaking. (This article explains how to properly disclose sponsored content.)

I really hope that they’re getting a grip on these issues in Germany. I am all for protecting consumers and understand the need for clear rules and regulations, but if bloggers and Instagrammers are becoming the targets of lawsuits for merely showing a product or tagging a company or place that they’re not in any way affiliated with or compensated for, I am asking myself if these so-called “consumer protectors” are bored out of their minds or if they’re just after money?

This is a ramble. I don’t know if total transparency on the world wide web is possible, but I can’t imagine that tagging everything as advertisement is a solution to this particular problem. As always: a few bad apples ruin the fun for everybody else.

Your thoughts?

* This is what I read and how I understood it. This is not legal advice. Educate yourself.

I don’t know if you blissfully ignored it or if you have been reading up on the topic, but the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) goes into effect in Europe tomorrow (and yes, that also very likely affects you, even though you might not live in Europe). 

I am sure you have at the very least noticed a flood of “privacy update” emails in the last couple of weeks. Everybody is scrambling to make sure their website is compliant.

I know, it’s a little bit overwhelming and the knee-jerk response might be to employ the head-in-the-sand attitude and ignore it, but is that really a good idea?

Probably not. But I will say, my head has been spinning with all the information of the GDPR.

In general, data protection is a good idea, right? But when I first heard about about it, it seemed to be more geared towards big data hog companies (like Google) and less towards small bloggers (like me). For small bloggers, determining what needs to be done to be compliant turns out to be somewhat of a huge task. So much happens “behind the scenes” of a blog. Even if you self-host, it means that your host service is involved in the background. So, virtually nobody seems to be exempt in this scenario and so I’d rather be safe than sorry.

The Five GDPR Basics You Absolutely Must Know¹

I think it’s fairly self-evident that if you use the Internet and visit a website that some information of your visit is collected, most likely information about your IP address, possible location, device and browser you’re using (unless you enable private browsing, I suppose.) I don’t know how the Internet would work otherwise.

Obviously, you can visit this blog without submitting any other personal information, however, if you want to leave a comment and engage with the author of a blog (me!) you will be asked to submit your name and email address (so that I can verify your identity and engage with you).

I am not going over all the details of GDPR ( you can read up on other sites that have already done the work of gathering the relevant information — see some links below), but I thought I’d share what I have done to get my blog compliant.

The basic principles you want to keep in mind, whether you run a personal blog, a small business, or a big company are:

1. You must process personal data in a way that is lawful, fair and transparent (e.g. disclose which data you’re collecting and why).

2. You must only use personal data for the specific purposes that you have declared ( e.g. you can’t use email addresses that have been shared in your comments to send the same people a newsletter. They have to specifically sign up for that in a separate way).

3. You must collect only the minimum amount of personal data required to achieve your stated objective (e.g. you can’t collect address and phone number from a person, if you’re intending to send a email newsletter, unless there is another specific reason why you need this information).

4. You must take all reasonable steps to ensure that any data you collect is accurate and kept up-to-date (e.g. rectify or delete wrong or bouncing email addresses immediately).

5. You must only hold personal data for as long as is required to achieve the stated objective (e.g. make sure that logs or other data is deleted once it’s no longer needed).

6. You must process personal data in a way that ensures appropriate security (e.g. having strong passwords, using encrypted servers, etc.).

Here are some things I have done to comply with GDPR

(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and make no claims to the accuracy or completeness of these suggestions. I take no responsibility for the advice provided. It is entirely your responsibility to be aware and fully compliant with regulations that apply to your website.)

+ I created a disclosure and privacy policy and linked them in my main menu (so it’s easy for people to find). Some people link it in the footer.  There are online generators that can help.

+ I verified that my blog is installed on a secure server, which means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. (Check by clicking https://theinbetweenismine.com).

+ I added a snippet of code into my WordPress (child) theme to omit the IP address when you submit a comment and deleted old IP addresses from my server.

+ Updated WordPress to the latest version (4.9.6. as of May 2018) and here’s their FAQ’s regarding WordPress and GDPR.

+ I added a check box to my comment form and contact form for you to consent before you’re submitting personal information.

+ I have contacted my blog hosting service (lunarpages.com) and have – unfortunately – not gotten a satisfactory answer in regards to their GDPR-compliance yet. Many articles mention that you have to have a ‘data processing agreement’ with your hosting service, but I am not sure yet what that looks like or if Lunarpages provides one.  (I have, for now,  linked their privacy policy in my privacy policy for transparency).

+ I have disabled Google Analytics for now, because I don’t really care that much about my blog stats and will do some more research to see how it can be implemented safely, if I decide to use it again in the future.

It seems like there are some straight-forward steps you can take to make your blog/website save to use for visitors, but at the same time, there is no single solution that will make a website compliant (because every website is different and uses/offers different services). 

Make sure you take a good look at your website first and note where and how you process data, then take appropriate steps towards GDPR-compliance. Showing willingness by implementing some first, no-brainer  solutions (like revisiting your consent process and publishing a privacy policy) is a huge step towards full compliance. I am sure there will be more information available as we enter this new territory.

Helpful resources

I have a gathered a few websites that might help you get compliant (if you read nothing else, read the first article, it’s explains GDPR and its reach fairly well):

+ What the Heck is GDPR? (and How to Make Sure Your Blog Is Compliant)

+ The Blogger’s Guide to GDPR

+ GDPR Compliance Tools in WordPress

+ GDPR for Bloggers

+ The Lowdown on GDPR Compliance for WordPress Users

+ The Blogger’s Guide to GDPR

+ The GDPR and Bloggers – what you need to know

+ Privacy and Disclosure Policies for Bloggers

¹From SmartBlogger.

Oh look! My blog got a little makeover. I didn’t really want to change too much, but I was itching for a little facelift. If you’re reading this through a feed reader, hop on over and check it out and let me know how you like it.

I have long contemplated to jump on the bandwagon of connecting my blog with other social media accounts and while I have links to my other social media accounts in the sidebar, I don’t really link back from there to here.

For some reason, I can’t seem to completely commit to being a “public” blog (which I technically totally am, of course). I don’t want to put a link to this blog on my (private) Twitter account, because I signed up with an email that I also use for Facebook and it has connected me with people who don’t know that I have a blog (and I prefer to keep it that way).

I know a lot of people have created their own Facebook page for their blog and while I like the idea, I also don’t want to mix (most of my) Facebook friends with blog friends. Silly? Maybe, but that’s the way I feel. So, I decided to make an Instagram account solely for my blog to inform you about new posts and other happenings. It seems like more and more people are moving away from subscribing via feed readers and new blog posts are “advertised” (I hate that word in regards to blogs, don’t ask me why) and checked out through social media channels (like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) anyway. Since Instagram is my preferred method of communication in connection to my blog, I thought this was the best way to go (although I will still link new blog posts on my Twitter account as well – I just won’t have the blog link on my public profile).

If you’re so inclined, you can add theinbetweenismine.blog to your Instagram list. If you’re getting updates through other channels, that’s fine too. I just thought I’d make it easier for people who prefer Instagram.