Website Privacy Audit Checklist: 30 Things to Verify Before Your Next Compliance Review

A practical, do-it-yourself checklist for business owners who want to know exactly where their site stands on privacy — before hiring a consultant or paying for a tool. Most privacy problems aren't discovered by regulators first. They're discovered by a developer who added a third-party script and didn't tell anyone, or by a customer who noticed a tracker firing before they clicked "Accept." By then, the damage is done. A privacy audit doesn't require a law degree or an enterprise compliance budget. It requires going through your site systematically and verifying — not assuming — that the basics are in place. This checklist gives you 30 specific things to check, organized into six areas. Work through it once and you'll have a clear picture of where you stand and what needs fixing. Section 1: Data Collection Inventory Before you can comply with any privacy law, you need to know what data your website actually collects. Most business owners think they know — most are wrong. Developer-ins