Latest core release also tweaks login diagnostics for devs
WordPress 5.4 launches today (March 31) with a raft of privacy-related enhancements.
“WordPress 5.4 brings several improvements to the privacy tools to improve the user experience and expand upon the data provided in personal data exports,” said core contributor Garrett Hyder in his release notes.
In total, WordPress 5.4 incorporates 122 enhancements and feature requests, plus 210 bug fixes, according to the WordPress 5.4 Field Guide.
Privacy enhancements
In the first major core release of 2020, WordPress’ personal data export feature for GDPR compliance has been improved to ensure that personally identifiable information present in session tokens, along with other data, is made available to the exporting user.
Developers can also expand on the user profile data grouping through the use of a new data filter. The personal data export zip, meanwhile, now contains a JSON file of the data for greater portability.
Also included among 17 privacy-related updates to the content management platform is new functionality that allows developers to filter the headers of all privacy-related emails.
CMS tweaks
In security-related changes, WordPress 5.4 features a handful of developer-focused improvements, including better information surrounding errors in the wp_login_failed action.
In a related semantic tweak, the WordPress community has also addressed ambiguity in the message that’s generated when a user seeks to retrieve their password.
WordPress admins will also benefit from enhancements to the block editor and administrative improvements in version 5.4, as well as a reported 14% load time reduction and 51% time-to-type reduction for posts exceeding 36,000 words.
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