WordPress Adds Legal Compliance to Plugin Guidelines

While there are many plugins available through WordPress that can improve your website, no plugin is a silver bullet. In this day and age of increasingly required ADA and other compliances, it is very important to have a development team that understands and is capable of performing inside the guidelines set out by WordPress. As new plugins make their way into the WordPress Plugins database, the company has begun to crack down on claims of guaranteed legal compliance with a new amendment to their plugin guidelines.

Under the new plugin guidelines prohibition, developers are no longer able to claim that their plugin can “create, provide, automate, or guarantee legal compliance”. This inherently includes plugins that provide security or internet safety, ADA compliance, privacy enhancement, online shopping protection and copyright concerns. While the plugins may provide much-needed support, they are not allowed to be submitted as an all-encompassing solution.

Going forward, WordPress will prevent any of these claims from being used when a plugin is submitted. This helps users of the plugin ensure they don’t have a false sense of security that could become detrimental to their website. By the same token, any plugins that are currently not in agreement with the new amendment will soon be notified to change their readme text, plugin description or title to maintain compliance.

While the majority of plugins available for WordPress will not be affected by this amendment, it is possible that one the plugins used on your website is. For this reason, it is important to work with a developer that understands the WordPress guidelines to avoid any potential problems that may arise. This will not only protect your business and it’s website, but also the wide range of visitors it receives.

Skynet Solutions takes pride in providing transparent and effective web design services for businesses at all sizes. Our developers can work within the WordPress plugin guidelines to ensure compliance while meeting your specific business needs. If you are interested in seeing how we can help benefit your business, we would love to talk to you.