Know the legal risk before you scrape
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner is a regulatory risk assessment tool that scans any Apify actor's metadata for PII collection indicators, Terms of Service exposure against 27 major platforms, and applicable regulations across 6 jurisdictions — and returns one deterministic decision (act_now / monitor / ignore) plus a publish gate (pass / warn / block) for $0.15 per scan. Covers GDPR, CCPA, CFAA, and 3 additional frameworks with actionable plain-English recommendations.
Web scraping operates in a complex regulatory landscape. ApifyForge Compliance Scanner does not provide legal advice, but it identifies which regulations likely apply to a specific actor based on the data it collects, the platforms it targets, and whether it accesses content behind authentication walls.
Detects 18 PII indicators: email, phone, name, address, salary, resume, identity, and more across actor name, description, and Apify Store categories. Triggers GDPR and CCPA applicability assessments.
Cross-references 27 major platforms with tiered risk levels: LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram/ZoomInfo/Apollo (HIGH), Amazon/Google/TikTok/Indeed/Airbnb (MEDIUM), Zillow/Yelp/Reddit (LOW). Based on enforcement history, not legal judgment.
Flags actors that access content behind login walls — relevant to CFAA compliance in the United States. Scans input schema for credential, cookie, and session token fields.
Identifies which of 6 regulations apply: GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, CFAA, ePrivacy Directive, CAN-SPAM, PIPEDA. Each with jurisdiction, trigger reason, and applicability confidence.
Evaluates risk by Apify Store category — LEAD_GENERATION and SOCIAL_MEDIA are high-risk, SEO_TOOLS and NEWS are low-risk. Category signals often correlate with PII collection patterns.
Specific steps like 'add opt-out mechanism for email collection' and 'document lawful basis under GDPR Article 6' — not generic legal boilerplate. Prioritized by risk level.
One deterministic decision — act_now / monitor / ignore — plus gateResult.publish (pass / warn / block) and enterpriseReview (required / optional / not_required). Fail CI when decision is act_now, promote when ignore. Same metadata, same verdict, every run.
weightedOverallScore (0–100) across 10 dimensions: PII, ToS, auth, category, regulatory surface, metadata completeness, documentation quality, schema completeness, agentic readiness, and Store discoverability. One number, fully auditable.
Structured evidence[] and counterEvidence[] behind every flag — never free-text. Stable reason codes so downstream tools branch on the signal, not the prose.
remediation.quickWins[] lists concrete fixes with minute estimates so you know what to fix and how long it takes. changeSignals diffs this scan against the last so you only act on what moved.
Opt-in privacyReviewPacket produces the GDPR review questions to answer before you ship — a paper trail for legal, compliance, or procurement, generated from the same scan.
There are several approaches to evaluating web scraping compliance risk. Each trades off speed, depth, and cost differently.
| Method | Coverage | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| ApifyForge Compliance Scanner | PII + ToS + auth + 6 regulations | Under 15 seconds | $0.15/scan |
| Manual actor review | Depends on reviewer expertise | 30-60 minutes | Free (time cost) |
| Legal counsel review | Comprehensive, jurisdiction-specific | Days to weeks | $200-500+/hour |
| Ignore compliance entirely | None | Zero | Free until enforcement |
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner is a first-pass risk identification tool, not a substitute for legal advice. Use it to prioritize which actors need deeper legal review.
{
"actorName": "ryanclinton/website-contact-scraper",
"decision": "monitor",
"gateResult": { "publish": "warn", "enterpriseReview": "optional" },
"overallRisk": "HIGH",
"weightedOverallScore": 62,
"dimensionScores": {
"piiRisk": "HIGH", "tosRisk": "LOW", "authRisk": "LOW",
"documentationQuality": "MEDIUM", "schemaCompleteness": "HIGH"
},
"applicableRegulations": [
{ "name": "GDPR", "jurisdiction": "EU/EEA", "reason": "Detected: email, phone, name" },
{ "name": "CAN-SPAM", "jurisdiction": "US", "reason": "Detected: email, contact" }
],
"evidence": [
{ "dimension": "piiRisk", "signal": "email, phone, contact, name in description" }
],
"remediation": {
"quickWins": [
{ "fix": "Document lawful basis under GDPR Article 6", "minutes": 10 },
{ "fix": "Add opt-out mechanism for email collection", "minutes": 15 }
]
},
"changeSignals": { "sinceLastScan": "decision unchanged (monitor)" }
}Connect your Apify token and enter the actor ID to scan
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner reads actor metadata and scans for PII, ToS, and regulatory indicators
Get a risk assessment with applicable regulations and actionable recommendations
Compliance risk assessment ranges from quick automated checks to comprehensive legal reviews. The right approach depends on your scale and risk tolerance.
Read the actor's description, check what data it collects, and research applicable regulations yourself. Thorough if you know privacy law, but time-intensive and inconsistent across team members.
Best for: developers with privacy law knowledge evaluating a single actor.
Engage a privacy attorney to review your scraping activities, data collection practices, and applicable regulations. The gold standard for compliance but expensive ($200-500+/hour) and slow (days to weeks per review).
Best for: production scraping operations with significant legal exposure.
Use a standardized PIA template to document data collection, processing purpose, retention, and safeguards. Comprehensive but manual — typically takes 2-4 hours per assessment and requires privacy expertise.
Best for: organizations with formal data governance requirements.
Apify publishes compliance guides covering GDPR, data processing, and platform terms. Good for understanding the platform's position but does not evaluate individual actor risk.
Best for: understanding Apify's compliance framework before building actors.
Automated first-pass risk assessment: PII scanning, ToS matching, auth wall detection, and 6-regulation mapping in under 15 seconds. $0.15 per scan. Not legal advice, but identifies which actors need deeper review.
Best for: developers who want fast compliance triage across multiple actors.
Every compliance scan executes on your own Apify account at the standard pay-per-event rate of $0.15 per scan. ApifyForge has no platform fee or subscription. Apify's free plan includes $5/month in credits, enough for approximately 33 scans per month.
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner scores an actor across 10 weighted dimensions — PII risk, ToS risk, auth-wall risk, category risk, regulatory surface, metadata completeness, documentation quality, schema completeness, agentic readiness, and Store discoverability. Under the hood it runs PII keyword scanning (18 indicators including email, phone, name, salary, resume), platform Terms of Service matching against 27 major platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Google, TikTok, and more), authentication-wall detection for CFAA relevance, and regulation mapping across 6 frameworks (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, CFAA, ePrivacy Directive, CAN-SPAM, PIPEDA). The result is a single decision — act_now, monitor, or ignore — plus a gateResult.publish verdict (pass / warn / block) you can gate CI on.
Each ApifyForge Compliance Scanner run costs $0.15, charged as a pay-per-event (PPE) fee on your own Apify account. ApifyForge has no platform fee or subscription. The scanner reads actor metadata only (name, description, categories, input schema) and does not trigger any actor runs. Apify's free tier includes $5/month in credits, enough for approximately 33 compliance scans per month.
No. ApifyForge Compliance Scanner performs automated risk assessment based on metadata analysis and pattern matching. It identifies potential compliance concerns and applicable regulations but does not constitute legal advice. The scanner cannot evaluate the legality of specific scraping activities in specific jurisdictions. Always consult a qualified attorney for compliance decisions affecting your business.
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner cross-references 27 major platforms with tiered risk levels. HIGH risk: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, ZoomInfo, and Apollo (actively enforce anti-scraping measures, pursue legal action, or are contact-data brokers). MEDIUM risk: Amazon, Google, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Indeed, Glassdoor, Booking, Airbnb, Tripadvisor, Upwork, Fiverr, Crunchbase, Google Play, and App Store. LOW risk: Zillow, Yelp, and Reddit. The risk level reflects the platform's history of enforcement, not a legal judgment.
Yes — that's the primary design. Every scan returns one deterministic decision enum: act_now (block the build and fix the flagged PII / ToS / auth risks first), monitor (document lawful basis, then publish), or ignore (safe to publish). There's also gateResult.publish (pass / warn / block) and gateResult.enterpriseReview (required / optional / not_required) for teams that need a legal sign-off step. The verdict is deterministic — same metadata produces the same decision every run, with no LLM in the loop — so it's safe to branch a build on. Fail when decision === 'act_now', promote when 'ignore'.
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner scans for 18 PII indicators across actor name, description, and Apify Store categories: email, phone, name, address, salary, resume, identity, social security, credit card, date of birth, passport, driver license, medical, financial, biometric, location, IP address, and personal data. Detection triggers GDPR and CCPA/CPRA applicability assessments automatically.
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner checks whether the actor's input schema or description references login credentials, cookies, session tokens, or authentication headers. Actors that access content behind login walls may implicate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the United States, which prohibits unauthorized access to computer systems. The scanner flags this risk and recommends consulting legal counsel.
Yes. ApifyForge Compliance Scanner reads publicly available actor metadata from the Apify Store — name, description, categories, and input schema. You can scan any public actor to assess its compliance risk before integrating it into your workflow. No API token from the actor owner is required.
ApifyForge Compliance Scanner provides specific, actionable steps rather than generic legal boilerplate. Examples include: 'Document lawful basis for processing personal data under GDPR Article 6', 'Add opt-out mechanism for email collection under CAN-SPAM', 'Implement data minimization — collect only fields needed for stated purpose', and 'Add privacy notice URL to actor README explaining data collection purpose'.