Document Generator
Privacy Policy Generator for Developers
Most privacy policy generators ask you to fill out a questionnaire. Codepliant takes a different approach — it scans your actual codebase to understand what data you collect, how you process it, and who you share it with. The result is an accurate privacy policy based on evidence, not guesswork.
What a privacy policy must contain
Privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD each have specific requirements, but every compliant privacy policy must address these core elements:
Data you collect
Personal information, device data, usage data, cookies — every category of data your application touches.
Why you collect it
The legal basis for processing: contract fulfillment, consent, legitimate interest, or legal obligation (GDPR Articles 6 and 9).
Third-party services
Every service that receives user data — analytics providers, payment processors, email services, cloud storage, AI APIs.
Data retention periods
How long each category of data is stored and when it is deleted.
User rights
Right to access, correct, delete, port, and restrict processing of personal data. GDPR Articles 15-22, CCPA Section 1798.100-135.
International transfers
If data crosses borders — especially from the EU to the US — you must disclose the transfer mechanisms (SCCs, adequacy decisions).
Cookie disclosures
What cookies and tracking technologies are used, their purpose, and how users can control them.
Contact information
How users reach your data controller or DPO to exercise their rights or file complaints.
Getting even one of these wrong — or omitting a section entirely — can mean non-compliance. The challenge is that most developers do not know which services in their codebase trigger which disclosures.
How Codepliant generates your privacy policy from code
Instead of asking you questions, Codepliant reads your project and figures out the answers itself. Here is what happens when you run the CLI:
Scan dependencies and imports
Codepliant reads your package.json, requirements.txt, go.mod, Cargo.toml, Podfile, or equivalent. It also scans source code imports to catch services that are not listed as direct dependencies.
Detect services and data flows
Each detected package is matched against a database of service signatures. Stripe triggers payment data disclosures. PostHog triggers analytics disclosures. Sentry triggers error monitoring disclosures. Every service maps to specific data categories.
Map legal obligations
Codepliant assigns a GDPR legal basis to each service category — consent for analytics, contract for payments, legitimate interest for error monitoring. It detects US-based providers that require international transfer disclosures.
Generate the document
The privacy policy is assembled with sections tailored to your actual stack. It names your specific services, lists the data they collect, and includes the correct legal basis for each. No generic placeholders.
What Codepliant detects in your code
Generic template vs. Codepliant-generated
Here is the difference between a typical privacy policy template and what Codepliant produces for the same codebase — a Next.js SaaS app using Stripe, PostHog, Clerk, and Sentry.
Information We Collect
We may collect personal information that you provide to us, such as your name, email address, and payment information. We may also collect information automatically, including usage data and cookies.
Third-Party Services
We may use third-party service providers to facilitate our service. These third parties have access to your personal information only to perform tasks on our behalf.
Data Retention
We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy.
Information We Collect
Account data (via Clerk): Name, email address, profile photo, OAuth tokens. Legal basis: Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)).
Payment data (via Stripe): Card details (processed by Stripe — we do not store card numbers), billing address, transaction history. Legal basis: Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)).
Analytics data (via PostHog): Page views, feature usage, session duration, device type, IP address (anonymized). Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)).
Error reports (via Sentry): Stack traces, browser metadata, request URLs. Legal basis: Legitimate Interest (Art. 6(1)(f)).
International Data Transfers
Your data is transferred to the United States via the following processors: Stripe, Inc. (San Francisco, CA), PostHog, Inc. (San Francisco, CA), Clerk, Inc. (San Francisco, CA), Sentry (San Francisco, CA). Transfers are governed by Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs).
The difference: The generic template says "we may use third-party service providers." Codepliant names Stripe, PostHog, Clerk, and Sentry — because it found them in your code. It lists the exact data each service collects and the GDPR legal basis for each processing activity. No "may" or "might" — just what your code actually does.
Why questionnaire-based generators fall short
They rely on self-reporting
You have to know every service that touches user data. Miss one analytics SDK or monitoring tool and your policy has a gap.
They go stale immediately
The moment a developer adds a new dependency — say, Sentry for error tracking — the privacy policy is out of date. Nobody remembers to update the questionnaire.
They use generic language
"We may use third-party analytics" is not compliant under GDPR. Regulators expect you to name specific processors and describe specific data flows.
They do not map legal bases
GDPR requires a legal basis for each processing activity (Article 6). Generic generators lump everything together or skip this entirely.
Regulation-aware output
Codepliant generates privacy policies that address requirements from multiple regulations simultaneously:
GDPR (EU)
Legal basis per processing activity, data subject rights (Articles 15-22), DPO contact, international transfer disclosures, data retention periods
CCPA / CPRA (California)
Right to know, right to delete, right to opt-out of sale, "Do Not Sell" disclosures, financial incentive disclosures
LGPD (Brazil)
Legal basis mapping, data subject rights, international transfer disclosures, DPO equivalent (encarregado) contact
PIPEDA (Canada)
Consent requirements, purpose limitation, data retention, individual access rights
Generate your privacy policy in seconds
Scan your codebase. Get a privacy policy that names your actual services, maps legal bases, and covers GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD requirements.
Free, open source, no account required. Works offline.
Frequently asked questions
What makes this different from other privacy policy generators?
Most privacy policy generators ask you to fill out a questionnaire about your data practices. Codepliant scans your actual source code — dependencies, imports, environment variables, database schemas — to detect what data you collect and which services you use. The result is a privacy policy based on evidence, not self-reported answers.
What does a privacy policy need to contain?
A legally compliant privacy policy must disclose: what personal data you collect, why you collect it (legal basis), how you process and store it, who you share it with (third parties), how long you retain data, what rights users have (access, deletion, portability), how users can exercise those rights, cookie and tracking disclosures, and contact information for your data controller. GDPR, CCPA, and other regulations each have specific requirements.
Does Codepliant generate GDPR-compliant privacy policies?
Codepliant generates privacy policies that include GDPR-required sections: legal basis for processing (mapped per service category), data subject rights (Articles 15-22), international transfer disclosures, data retention information, and DPO contact details. You should still have a lawyer review the output for your specific jurisdiction.
What languages and frameworks does Codepliant support?
Codepliant scans codebases in TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Rust, Java, PHP, Swift, Kotlin, and Terraform. It detects services across all major ecosystems including npm, pip, Go modules, Cargo, Composer, CocoaPods, and more.
Is this free to use?
Yes. The CLI is open source (MIT licensed) and free. Run npx codepliant go in your project directory and the privacy policy is generated locally — no account, no API key, no network calls.
How does Codepliant detect third-party services?
Codepliant scans your package.json (or equivalent), source code imports, environment variables, and configuration files. It matches against a database of service signatures — for example, detecting @stripe/stripe-js in your dependencies triggers disclosures about payment data processing via Stripe.
Can I customize the generated privacy policy?
Yes. You can configure Codepliant with a .codepliantrc.json file to set your company name, contact email, DPO details, data retention periods, and more. The generated Markdown file can be edited further before publishing.
How often should I regenerate my privacy policy?
Regenerate your privacy policy whenever you add or remove third-party services, change data collection practices, or update your tech stack. You can use codepliant diff to see what changed since the last generation. Many teams add Codepliant to their CI pipeline to catch changes automatically.