Targeting GDPR location (General Data Protection Regulation location), otherwise, locating visitors who are under the GDPR law is essential for today’s business.
In our previous article “SAFE GUIDE for the GDPR and Location Data Collection” we explained what GDPR is and how it can be safely applied on a website and how you can insure yourself against possible problems and violations of someone’s GDPR.
What is the meaning of the term: GDPR LOCATION?
The term “GDPR location” means all technical applications and functionalities, textual and media content, as well as public and hidden services that collect or contain all sensitive information, which apply exclusively to users and visitors from the European Union.
To clarify the definition, anyone who visits your WordPress website, or any other website and comes from the European Union, is a citizen of the same, and its location falls under GDPR laws and regulations.
How can we detect the GDPR location?
For the detection of GDPR location, that is, detecting GDPR location is feasible using GPS locations or IP addresses.
It is much more advisable to use an IP address for this type of detection because every computer communicates via an IP address and precision in this case is not much important. Also, not every device has GPS, and many users turn off or disable the GPS location and therefore is not very reliable in our case.
How to Target GDPR Location in the WordPress?
WordPress is a modular CMS for which there are many plugins but one has a special purpose to locate users who fall under the GDPR site.
Geo Controller is a WordPress plugin that has GDPR location detection tools and provides the ability to manipulate content and pages via shortcode, PHP or JavaScript.
Detect GDPR Location in WordPress using shortcode
The shortcode in the WordPress is a simple set of functions for creating WordPress shortcodes for use in posts and pages. Geo Controller has its own clearly defined shortcodes that have their own purpose and functionality. To detect the GDPR location we use a shortcode called [in_eu]
How can we use it?
[in_eu]You are from the European Union (accept HTML)[/in_eu]
With this Geo Controller shortcode you can show or hide content for the visitor of European Union (EU).
Parameters
default – (accept: text) – This will be returned if EU shortcode not match (optional)
exclude – (accept: comma separated text) – this parameter gives to shortcode new functionality. If you wrap some content with a shortcode and add this parameter with continent, country, region, city name or code, it will hide that content from that setup location.
include – (accept: comma separated text) – this parameter gives to shortcode new functionality. If you wrap some content with a shortcode and add this parameter with continent, country, region, city name or code, it will show that content from that setup location.
cache – (no values) – This is single property with no values. It was used for the cache support that forced AJAX requests to get proper geo information. This shortcode can be also automatically added if cache setting is enabled.
Return
These shortcodes display or hide EU messages on your website.
Examples
Display EU message:
[in_eu default="You are NOT from the European Union"]You are from the European Union[/in_eu]
Returns: You are NOT from the European Union
Detect GDPR Location in WordPress using JavaScript
JavaScript is one of the most important scripts when it comes to WordPress and you have several objects through which you can access to geo information.
Within the first line of the HTML element, we have placed special objects through which you can access to geo information:
window.wp.geo– Using standard WordPress JavaScriptwpobjectwindow.cfgeo– Using directwindowobjectcf.geoplugin– Using old Geo Controllercfobject (included conflict fix from the version 6.x.x).
How can we use it to locate GDPR in JavaScript?
if(window.wp.geo.in_eu)
{
/* GDPR location - Do anything you want for the GDPR visitors */
}
else
{
/* ...else nothing, or... ...something */
}
No explanation is needed for this. It’s too easy. Just add an adequate check window.wp.geo.in_eu in your JavaScript and do what you want.
window.wp.geo.in_eu returns integer 1 for EU visitors or 0 for non EU visitors (GDPR location visitors).
For more information on JavaScript objects in Geo Controller, you can find in the documentation: JavaScript Integration
Detect GDPR Location in WordPress using PHP
Similar to JavaScript, the Geo Controller has a PHP approach that can be used in themes and other plugins to do GDPR location check.
<?php
## Check is Geo Controller active and running
if(class_exists('CF_Geoplugin'))
{
## Initialize Geo Controller
$cfgeo_init = new CF_Geoplugin();
## Get Geo Controller avilable objects
$geo = $cfgeo_init->get();
## Check GDPR location
if($geo->in_eu)
{
/* GDPR location - Do anything you want for the GDPR visitors */
}
else
{
/* ...else nothing, or... ...something */
}
}
Detect GDPR Location in WordPress and do SEO Redirection to Another Location
If you need to redirect your visitors from one location to another, Geo Controller has that option as well. Redirecting to or from GDPR location is possible if you select regions and redirect to a dedicated page or another site. More about that you can read at Enable SEO Redirection and SEO Redirection Usage.
Conclusion
As you can see, with Geo Controller it is easy to do a GDPR location and locate visitors from across the European Union. All you have to do is install this powerful plugin and the magic can begin.
Click to Download latest Geo Controller version 8.6.7
NOTE
Do not forget that Geo Controller uses very sensitive information and you must indicate it in your privacy policy because of European GDPR law, but in fact, Geo Controller is fully valid for use and does not violate any legal acts by itself.
