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Applying and updating mail management configuration (via SMTP)
Applying and updating mail management configuration (via SMTP)

This article briefly explains regulatory (GDPR) data storage guidelines and how to set up mail configuration using, for example, SMTP.

Updated over a week ago

Understanding the regulations around data storage

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of data protection regulations aimed to protect the privacy and personal information of individuals. Compliance with GDPR is not just a legal requirement but also a commitment for any software provider to protect their user’s data and privacy.

The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out detailed compliance requirements for companies and organizations on collecting, storing, and managing personal data. These regulations apply to European organizations that process the personal data of individuals in the EU, and to organizations outside the EU that target EU residents. These storage regulations also apply to email data so we need to ensure that you are able to manage your data in accordance with regulations.

Ensuring compliance with data storage regulations

Please, make sure that the mail configuration for your application meets with GDPR. While building your application, you are able to use the demonstration (demo) setting that is configured to the Betty Blocks domain*. In this way, test emails sent while building your application comply with EU storage regulations.

* The Betty Blocks domain communicates via Flowmailer - a 3rd party provider that is GDPR-compliant and ISO 27001 certified.

We collected some tips to follow in order to ensure you set up a GDPR-compliant email configuration:

  • Data encryption: To safeguard data while it travels between the Betty Blocks platform and users' devices, all communications are secured using Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols. These encryption methods establish secure connections, preventing eavesdropping and tampering during data transmission.

  • Data minimization: Only collect and process data necessary for the purpose of the email.

  • Retention policies: Implement email retention policies to comply with data storage limitations

Once you are ready to move your application to production to make it available to end users, you need to reconfigure the mail settings to either SMTP (where available within your organization) or to a 3rd party provider such as Mandrill or Flowmailer. Contact either your local IT department or your 3rd party provider for configuration details.

Note: If you have a Netherlands-based business, read through this article.

What has changed?

Demo settings are applied as the default for applications created after 26/10/2021. You can update existing applications to ensure compliance with EU data regulations. Where SMTP is already configured for your applications, these settings are maintained in the Mail configuration form.

Recommendation: Please check or change settings as appropriate for your application/organization in the Mail form tab. How you work with this form is described in the following.

Applying mail settings

When transitioning from the development environment to production, SMTP reconfiguration is often required. The reason for this is that production environments have different requirements and security standards compared to development. Make sure that your SMTP settings are correctly configured for the production environment to prevent disruptions in email notifications.

You can apply or update the mail configuration in the Mail form in your application settings. To navigate to the Mail form, navigate from the Betty Blocks platform to My Betty Blocks as follows:

Open My Betty Blocks and click on the application options ... button. Select Settings from the pull-down menu displayed. The application settings are opened. Press the Mail tab.

Complete the configuration settings required by clicking on the corresponding radio button. You can select either:

  • Demo settings - the default applied for new applications and is recommended when building applications. Under the default settings, emails are sent via Flowmailer, an EU-domiciled GDPR-compliant email delivery platform. While active during the development stage of an application, the sender (From) address is configured to the betty.app email domain, for example, username@betty.app.

  • Custom SMTP configuration - the recommended configuration for all applications in the live/production environment. Using this setting, you can apply the configuration settings required for routing emails through a company email domain. Settings are automatically applied for existing applications that are already configured for SMTP.

Note: Existing applications built before 26/10/2021 can be updated for compliance. Where SMTP is already configured, settings are automatically updated.

You can specify the authentication mechanism that you want to be applied based on your mail configuration and the details provided by your IT department. Select the Save changes button to save the changes.

Tip: Contact your IT department to obtain the required SMTP configuration details for your application.

Applying additional security

Please, check if you need to apply additional security such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or Domain Keys Identification Mail (DKIM) around your mail configurations. Contact your 3rd party provider or in-house IT networking team for details.

Note: The SMTP settings override platform-send error mails. All error emails will be sent from the SMTP server once the mail configuration has been completed.

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