TechnicalPre-launch legal risk audit for an AI-built app
Act as a careful product engineer who knows privacy and consumer law. Before {{business_name}} launches, audit my {{tech_stack}} app for six legal risks that are often fined per visitor, per email or per session, then fix what you can in the code. This isn't legal advice: flag anything I should confirm with a lawyer, and check current penalty amounts instead of quoting them from memory.
Read the codebase first. For each risk, report Found, Not found or Unsure, with file paths, then make the smallest fix:
1. Children (US COPPA): does sign-up ask for age? Add a neutral age gate that blocks under-13 accounts unless I tell you we collect verifiable parental consent, and don't keep the birth date longer than needed.
2. Fonts and third-party requests (GDPR): are fonts, icons or scripts loaded from Google or other CDNs that receive visitors' IP addresses? Self-host the font files and list every third-party request that remains.
3. Session replay (California CIPA): is a replay or heatmap tool recording sessions or keystrokes? Turn it off by default, or load it only after consent, with every input masked.
4. Marketing email (CAN-SPAM): does every marketing email have a working unsubscribe link, our postal address and an honest sender and subject? Add them to the templates and honor opt-outs within 10 business days.
5. Subscriptions (California automatic renewal law): right next to the subscribe button, show the price, how often it bills, that it renews until canceled and how to cancel. Get clear consent, send a confirmation, and make canceling online as easy as signing up.
6. User uploads (DMCA): if people can upload content, add a copyright and takedown page with a designated agent's contact details, and a way for me to act on takedown notices.
Also check: a privacy policy that matches what the code really collects, a cookie banner if we set non-essential cookies, and keyboard-friendly sign-up and checkout.
Finish with a table (risk, status, files changed) and a checklist of what only I can do, such as registering a DMCA agent with the U.S. Copyright Office at copyright.gov (a small fee, renewed every three years) and choosing the postal address for our emails.