Privacy policy or terms of service linked
Why it matters
GDPR Article 13 requires informing users about data collection at the point of collection. CCPA §1798.100 grants California residents the right to know what data is collected and to opt out — both rights are only exercisable if users can find your privacy policy. Beyond legal requirements, major ad networks (Google, Meta), payment processors (Stripe, PayPal), and app stores (Apple, Google) require a linked privacy policy to approve accounts and maintain access. Launching without visible legal links exposes the business to regulatory fines, platform bans, and loss of payment processing — not just reputational risk.
Severity rationale
Critical because absent legal links constitute a regulatory compliance failure under GDPR and CCPA, and trigger automatic rejection or suspension by ad networks, app stores, and payment processors.
Remediation
Add privacy policy and terms of service links in your site footer, visible on every page:
<footer>
<a href="/privacy">Privacy Policy</a>
<a href="/terms">Terms of Service</a>
</footer>
In Next.js, create app/privacy/page.tsx and app/terms/page.tsx. Use a free generator (Termly, Iubenda, PrivacyPolicies.com) if you do not have legal documents yet — a generated policy is far better than none. Your privacy policy must cover at minimum: what personal data you collect, how you use it, who you share it with, and how users can request deletion. Links with href="#" or href="javascript:void(0)" do not satisfy this check — the links must point to actual pages.
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the Site Health Check audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
External references
- gdpr · Art. 13 — Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject
- ccpa · §1798.100 — Consumer Right to Know / Disclosure
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from site-health-check·automated