Privacy policy linked from every page footer

GDPR Art. 13 requires privacy information to be provided at the time personal data is collected, which in practice means the privacy policy must be reachable from every page where a user interacts with the product. The CCPA §1798.100 imposes a parallel obligation for California residents. The FTC's privacy policy guidance treats a footer link as the minimum baseline for consumer awareness. A financial product with authenticated dashboards, account settings, or transaction screens that lack footer privacy links fails to satisfy any of these frameworks — and regulators treat authenticated sections as higher-risk because they process more sensitive data than marketing pages.

Create a shared footer component that includes the privacy policy link and import it into every layout file. In src/components/Footer.tsx:

// src/components/Footer.tsx
export function Footer() {
  return (
    <footer className="page-footer">
      <nav aria-label="Legal links">
        <a href="/privacy">Privacy Policy</a>
        <a href="/terms">Terms of Service</a>
        <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
      </nav>
    </footer>
  )
}

Import and render <Footer /> in app/layout.tsx (root) and in any group layout under app/(app)/layout.tsx or app/(dashboard)/layout.tsx that renders its own layout shell. Authenticated routes are not exempt — they handle more sensitive data and are higher-scrutiny for regulators.