I Built a Website Compliance Calculator While Researching ADA, GDPR, and Cookie Laws (And Now I’m Slightly Terrified)

Furqan us Sadain — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:16:47 +0000

While researching website compliance laws recently, I discovered something mildly unsettling.
Most websites are accidentally breaking at least one law.

Not in a dramatic “SWAT team at your door” kind of way…
More like a “you receive a polite legal notice from a lawyer on a random Tuesday afternoon” kind of way.

And the funny part?
Many developers and founders don’t even realize these regulations apply to websites.

The Internet Got Regulated While We Were Busy Shipping Features
For a long time, building a website was simple.
You needed:
HTML
some CSS
maybe a little JavaScript
a contact form
Congratulations, you had a website.

Fast forward to today and websites now operate under a growing list of regulations like:

ADA website accessibility
WCAG accessibility standards
GDPR privacy regulations
CCPA data protection laws
Cookie consent requirements
PCI DSS payment security

Which means your friendly little website may now be subject to international privacy laws and accessibility standards.
No pressure.
The Real Problem: Nobody Knows What Applies to Them

The tricky part about website compliance is that not every regulation applies to every website.

For example:
A personal blog might mainly deal with:
cookie consent
privacy policies
GDPR requirements

An ecommerce website might deal with:
PCI DSS payment security
consumer privacy laws
accessibility regulations
A healthcare site may even run into:
HIPAA compliance requirements

So the real question becomes:
Which compliance rules actually apply to my website?
So I Built a Small Compliance Calculator
While researching these laws, I kept thinking:
There should be a simple way to answer this question.

So I built a small experiment:
A Website Compliance Calculator.
It asks a few questions about your website, like:
Where your users are located
Whether you collect personal data
Whether you process online payments
Whether you use analytics or tracking tools

Based on those answers, it generates a compliance overview of which regulations might apply to your website.
You can try it here:
https://compliance-compass-fs.netlify.app/

Sometimes the result is comforting.
Sometimes it suggests you may want to update a few things on your website before a lawyer notices them.

The Weird Part: Most Compliance Problems Are Unintentional
While digging into this topic, one thing became very clear.
Most websites don’t violate compliance laws because they want to.
They do it because:
nobody told them accessibility matters
cookie consent rules are confusing
privacy regulations are written like legal puzzles
developers are busy shipping features
And honestly… most compliance guides are written for lawyers, not developers.

So I Started Writing a Guide
While building the calculator, I also started working on something else.
A guide called:
The Website Compliance Playbook
The goal is simple:
Explain things like:
ADA website compliance
WCAG accessibility
GDPR privacy rules
cookie consent requirements
website security expectations
In plain English that developers and founders can actually understand.
No legal jargon.
No 200-page regulations.
Just practical explanations.
The Playbook Is Still a Work in Progress
The calculator is already live.
The playbook is still being written, but if you’re curious about website compliance or want early access when it’s finished, feel free to reach out.

Email:
furqan.sadain93@gmail.com

Or connect with me on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/furqan-sadain-729517100

Final Thought
Website compliance might sound like a boring legal topic.
Until the moment someone sends you a legal notice about your website.
Then suddenly it becomes very interesting.
If you run or build websites, it’s worth taking two minutes to check which compliance rules might apply.

But if it doesn’t… at least you found out before the lawyers did. 😅

DEV Community: Furqan us Sadain

I Built a Website Compliance Calculator While Researching ADA, GDPR, and Cookie Laws (And Now I’m Slightly Terrified)