See which laws likely apply

The Laws tab: which privacy laws likely apply to your site, how it decides, and the laws starting soon.

Privacy laws follow your customers, and most only apply above a certain size. The Laws tab works out which ones likely apply to you, explains each in plain English and links to its official text. It’s a starting point, not legal advice.

The GoConsent Laws tab with cards for the CCPA/CPRA, CalOPPA and Nevada’s online privacy notice law.
  1. Laws that likely apply to you, based on your Settings.
  2. Likely applies: you meet what the law covers, as far as your answers show.
  3. What it asks of you, in short lines.

The answers it uses

  • Location (Settings › Business): your home state or country. It always counts as a place you have customers.
  • Where your customers are (Settings › Who you serve): US states, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
  • Your size: People whose data you handle (per year, in your biggest state), Small business, Revenue over $25 million a year, and Earns money selling customer data.
  • Handles sensitive data, and your Industry (Settings › Business), such as Health, Kids or Finance.

How it decides

  • State consumer privacy laws (California, Virginia, Colorado and 21 more) likely apply when you have customers in that state and meet its size test, for example data of 100,000 residents a year, a lower number if you earn money selling data, or high revenue. Each card’s “Who it covers” line gives the test.
  • Some laws have no size test: California’s CalOPPA and the online privacy laws of Delaware and Nevada apply when you have customers there, and the EU GDPR, UK GDPR and Canada’s PIPEDA when you serve those regions.
  • Consumer health data laws in Washington, Nevada and Connecticut are added when you serve those states and choose Health or Handles sensitive data.
  • COPPA (children’s privacy) and GLBA (financial privacy) are added when you have US customers and choose Kids or Finance.

Change an answer and the list updates straight away. See Set up your business profile for each setting.

Reading the tab

  • Laws that likely apply to you: each card says who the law covers and what it asks of you, gives its citation and start date, and has a Read the law button.
  • Coming soon: laws you’ll likely meet that haven’t started yet, marked “Starts” with the date. This includes lower size limits on the way, such as Delaware’s from 2027.
  • Other laws: the rest of the 35 laws GoConsent knows, with a search box.

If no law sets requirements for your business today, the tab says so, and GoConsent still applies best practices. The Overview shows the same list under “Laws that likely apply to your business”, with any law starting soon.

Why it matters

This list decides how serious each Overview check is. A check a law likely requires says “Required by” and names the law; the rest are marked as recommended, not legally required for your business today.

With GoConsent Pro you get an email when a law starts to likely apply, and 60 days before one starts. See Alerts and the monthly report. Each law also has its own page on this site: browse all privacy laws.

Still stuck? Contact support and tell us which page you were on.