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Two or three countries, side by side, one row per question. Pick up to 3.

Countries

AzerbaijanChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Azerbaijan has had a personal data law since 2010. Data may leave the country, but only if you decide the destination protects it as well as Azerbaijan does, and you must declare those exports up front. The real cost is not the export rule. It is that you must register your database with the state before you collect a single record.
The catch: The easy-sounding export rule hides where the work actually is. Nothing may be collected until the system holding it sits on a state register, and the government's security rules are unusually specific, down to the encryption key length and where the archive building may stand. Banking and payments have no separate storage wall, but a new cybersecurity regime started in August 2026 and a social media law bites in 2027.
Does this apply to me?: The law is silent about foreign companies, and that silence is the answer. Unlike Europe's rules, Azerbaijan's personal data law has no clause reaching organisations abroad that sell to Azerbaijanis. What it does have is a duty on the 'owner' of a database to register it with the state before collecting anything, and that duty is enforced through the register in Baku. A foreign company with no Azerbaijani entity has no realistic way to register, and no regulator has said whether it must. From 2027 one narrow group of foreign firms is caught by name: social network providers offering services to users in Azerbaijan must set up a local branch or representative office.Medium confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with conditions, and the condition is a judgement call you make yourself. Azerbaijan bans sending personal data abroad in only two situations: where it would threaten national security, or where the destination country's law does not protect the data to the standard Azerbaijani law sets. Nobody publishes a list of good or bad countries, so you decide, and you carry the risk. If the person has consented, or if the transfer is needed to protect their life or health, the destination's standard stops mattering at all. We looked hard for industry walls in banking, payments, insurance, securities, telecoms and health and found none that force data to stay in the country.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: There is no form to file and no approval to get. You need three things instead: a lawful basis for the processing in the first place, your own written assessment that the destination country protects the data well enough, and a declaration of the transfer in your entry on the state register. That last point is the one people miss. The registration form asks you to list the categories of personal data you send to other countries and to international organisations, so an undeclared export is also a registration failure.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: This changed three months ago. On 3 June 2026 the President abolished the Electronic Security Service and created the National Cybersecurity Agency in its place, under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, with express powers over personal data as well as cyber security. The agency is real and working: it runs the state register, takes complaints about data misuse through its website, publishes advisories most weeks, and signed a cooperation agreement with Latvia's data protection inspectorate in July 2026. It is not independent of government, and we found no published fines. The register itself is the strongest evidence it functions: 444 systems are listed and the most recent approval is dated 7 August 2026.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: The ceiling is strict and the floor is thin. Once you have achieved the purpose you collected the data for, and there is no longer a need to keep it, you must destroy it without delay. If your registration is cancelled, everything in that system must be blocked immediately and destroyed. Sensitive data must go as soon as the reason for holding it disappears, unless the person agrees to it staying or being archived. In the other direction, the personal data law itself sets no minimum keeping period. The clearest floor we could verify is new: from 2026, records of a digital forensic investigation into a cyber incident must be kept for at least three years.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There is no personal data breach notification duty at all. The 2010 law never created one, and nothing since has added one, so losing customer records triggers no report to any regulator and no letter to the people affected. What does exist is a cyber incident duty, and it is fast: since August 2026, organisations that run information infrastructure must pass information about cyber threats, attacks and incidents to the National CERT immediately. Once the National CERT asks you something, you have 24 hours to answer a threat research request and 5 working days to answer a digital investigation request. Financial firms have a second clock through the Central Bank's FinCERT portal.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five. One: you cannot start. Collecting or processing personal data in an unregistered system is an offence, and registration takes up to a month. Two: the security rules are engineering specifications, not principles, and include a minimum 256-bit encryption key, a data centre archive system housed in a separate building, and state expert review of your system design documents. Three: every operator must set things up so that police and intelligence bodies can carry out surveillance, and must keep the methods secret. Four: the fine for breaking the data law is 300 to 500 manat, roughly 175 to 290 US dollars, which tells you the real risk is being ordered to stop, not being fined. Five: the law says data system work needs a special licence, and no licensing regime matching it appears to be running.High confidence
What's about to change?: One big date and one big gap. The big date is roughly August 2027, twelve months after publication, when Azerbaijan's minimum age of 16 for social network accounts starts. Providers must verify age using a bank card, an email address and a mobile number, must delete what they collected for that check immediately, and must open a local branch. The penalty ladder ends with a court ordering the platform's traffic in Azerbaijan cut by 90 per cent. The big gap is that the July 2026 cybersecurity law leaves the important lists and technical requirements to be written by ministries, and they are not out yet.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Government — “Hökumət buludu”nun (G-cloud) yaradılması və “bulud” xidmətlərinin göstərilməsi sahəsində tədbirlər haqqında Azərbaycan Respublikası Prezidentinin Fərmanı

IndiaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: India's general privacy law is unusually relaxed about sending data abroad — it bans transfers only to countries on a government blacklist, and that blacklist is currently empty. But specific industries have hard walls: payments data, insurance records and telecom network data must stay inside India. The main law is passed but most of it only becomes enforceable in May 2027, and the regulator has no members yet.
The catch: The permissive headline is true only until you touch payments, insurance, telecom infrastructure, government cloud, public-health records or detailed mapping data. In those six areas India is one of the strictest jurisdictions in the world.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it reaches you even with no office in India. The law applies to any organisation anywhere in the world that processes Indians' data in connection with offering goods or services to people in India. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes — freely. India's approach is a blacklist: the government may name countries you cannot send data to, and as of today it has named none. Six industries are the exception and are covered below.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Nothing to sign, no government approval, no standard contract. Unlike Europe, India requires no paperwork to send personal data abroad under the general law — the only question is whether the destination is on the blacklist, and nothing is. Sector rules override this completely.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: On paper, the Data Protection Board of India. In practice, nobody yet — the Board legally exists but as of August 2026 has no chairperson and no members. The government advertised the five posts in May 2026 and re-advertised in June, and they were still vacant in August. Sector regulators, by contrast, are fully active: the central bank, the insurance and securities regulators, the telecom department and the national cyber agency all enforce today.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is both a floor and a ceiling. From May 2027 every organisation must keep processing logs for at least one year. Tax records run six years, company books eight, and security logs 180 days. In the other direction, large consumer platforms must delete a user's data three years after they last engaged — with 48 hours' warning to the user first.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Two clocks, and this trips up almost everyone. You have SIX HOURS to report a cyber incident to India's national cyber agency — one of the shortest deadlines in the world. Separately, from May 2027, you must tell the privacy regulator and affected individuals without delay, then file a detailed report within 72 hours.High confidence
What's the trap?: Four things that catch people out. (1) A child is anyone under 18 — there is no lower age of digital consent as there is in Europe, and targeted advertising to under-18s is banned outright. (2) A consent manager must be an Indian company with about $2.3m of net worth, so a foreign entity cannot be one. (3) If designated a 'significant' organisation you must have a data protection officer physically based in India who answers to the board. (4) The general law expressly preserves stricter sector rules, so its liberal transfer regime gives you nothing if you touch payments, insurance or telecom.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three dates matter. 13 November 2026: consent managers must register. 13 May 2027: the whole law becomes enforceable, and the government has publicly refused to extend it or exempt startups. At some point before then, the Board should get its members — at which point enforcement switches on.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Payments — Storage of Payment System Data
Telecoms — Telecommunications (Authorisation) Rules, 2026
Insurance — IRDAI (Maintenance of Information by Regulated Entities and Sharing of Information by the Authority) Regulations, 2025
Securities — Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework, control PR.DS.S2
All industries — Directions under section 70B(6) of the Information Technology Act, 2000

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	AzerbaijanChecked 18 August 2026	IndiaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Azerbaijan has had a personal data law since 2010. Data may leave the country, but only if you decide the destination protects it as well as Azerbaijan does, and you must declare those exports up front. The real cost is not the export rule. It is that you must register your database with the state before you collect a single record.	India's general privacy law is unusually relaxed about sending data abroad — it bans transfers only to countries on a government blacklist, and that blacklist is currently empty. But specific industries have hard walls: payments data, insurance records and telecom network data must stay inside India. The main law is passed but most of it only becomes enforceable in May 2027, and the regulator has no members yet.
The catch	The easy-sounding export rule hides where the work actually is. Nothing may be collected until the system holding it sits on a state register, and the government's security rules are unusually specific, down to the encryption key length and where the archive building may stand. Banking and payments have no separate storage wall, but a new cybersecurity regime started in August 2026 and a social media law bites in 2027.	The permissive headline is true only until you touch payments, insurance, telecom infrastructure, government cloud, public-health records or detailed mapping data. In those six areas India is one of the strictest jurisdictions in the world.
Does this apply to me?	The law is silent about foreign companies, and that silence is the answer. Unlike Europe's rules, Azerbaijan's personal data law has no clause reaching organisations abroad that sell to Azerbaijanis. What it does have is a duty on the 'owner' of a database to register it with the state before collecting anything, and that duty is enforced through the register in Baku. A foreign company with no Azerbaijani entity has no realistic way to register, and no regulator has said whether it must. From 2027 one narrow group of foreign firms is caught by name: social network providers offering services to users in Azerbaijan must set up a local branch or representative office.Medium confidence	Yes, it reaches you even with no office in India. The law applies to any organisation anywhere in the world that processes Indians' data in connection with offering goods or services to people in India. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	Yes, with conditions, and the condition is a judgement call you make yourself. Azerbaijan bans sending personal data abroad in only two situations: where it would threaten national security, or where the destination country's law does not protect the data to the standard Azerbaijani law sets. Nobody publishes a list of good or bad countries, so you decide, and you carry the risk. If the person has consented, or if the transfer is needed to protect their life or health, the destination's standard stops mattering at all. We looked hard for industry walls in banking, payments, insurance, securities, telecoms and health and found none that force data to stay in the country.High confidence	In general, yes — freely. India's approach is a blacklist: the government may name countries you cannot send data to, and as of today it has named none. Six industries are the exception and are covered below.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	There is no form to file and no approval to get. You need three things instead: a lawful basis for the processing in the first place, your own written assessment that the destination country protects the data well enough, and a declaration of the transfer in your entry on the state register. That last point is the one people miss. The registration form asks you to list the categories of personal data you send to other countries and to international organisations, so an undeclared export is also a registration failure.High confidence	Nothing to sign, no government approval, no standard contract. Unlike Europe, India requires no paperwork to send personal data abroad under the general law — the only question is whether the destination is on the blacklist, and nothing is. Sector rules override this completely.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	This changed three months ago. On 3 June 2026 the President abolished the Electronic Security Service and created the National Cybersecurity Agency in its place, under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, with express powers over personal data as well as cyber security. The agency is real and working: it runs the state register, takes complaints about data misuse through its website, publishes advisories most weeks, and signed a cooperation agreement with Latvia's data protection inspectorate in July 2026. It is not independent of government, and we found no published fines. The register itself is the strongest evidence it functions: 444 systems are listed and the most recent approval is dated 7 August 2026.High confidence	On paper, the Data Protection Board of India. In practice, nobody yet — the Board legally exists but as of August 2026 has no chairperson and no members. The government advertised the five posts in May 2026 and re-advertised in June, and they were still vacant in August. Sector regulators, by contrast, are fully active: the central bank, the insurance and securities regulators, the telecom department and the national cyber agency all enforce today.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	The ceiling is strict and the floor is thin. Once you have achieved the purpose you collected the data for, and there is no longer a need to keep it, you must destroy it without delay. If your registration is cancelled, everything in that system must be blocked immediately and destroyed. Sensitive data must go as soon as the reason for holding it disappears, unless the person agrees to it staying or being archived. In the other direction, the personal data law itself sets no minimum keeping period. The clearest floor we could verify is new: from 2026, records of a digital forensic investigation into a cyber incident must be kept for at least three years.Medium confidence	There is both a floor and a ceiling. From May 2027 every organisation must keep processing logs for at least one year. Tax records run six years, company books eight, and security logs 180 days. In the other direction, large consumer platforms must delete a user's data three years after they last engaged — with 48 hours' warning to the user first.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	There is no personal data breach notification duty at all. The 2010 law never created one, and nothing since has added one, so losing customer records triggers no report to any regulator and no letter to the people affected. What does exist is a cyber incident duty, and it is fast: since August 2026, organisations that run information infrastructure must pass information about cyber threats, attacks and incidents to the National CERT immediately. Once the National CERT asks you something, you have 24 hours to answer a threat research request and 5 working days to answer a digital investigation request. Financial firms have a second clock through the Central Bank's FinCERT portal.High confidence	Two clocks, and this trips up almost everyone. You have SIX HOURS to report a cyber incident to India's national cyber agency — one of the shortest deadlines in the world. Separately, from May 2027, you must tell the privacy regulator and affected individuals without delay, then file a detailed report within 72 hours.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five. One: you cannot start. Collecting or processing personal data in an unregistered system is an offence, and registration takes up to a month. Two: the security rules are engineering specifications, not principles, and include a minimum 256-bit encryption key, a data centre archive system housed in a separate building, and state expert review of your system design documents. Three: every operator must set things up so that police and intelligence bodies can carry out surveillance, and must keep the methods secret. Four: the fine for breaking the data law is 300 to 500 manat, roughly 175 to 290 US dollars, which tells you the real risk is being ordered to stop, not being fined. Five: the law says data system work needs a special licence, and no licensing regime matching it appears to be running.High confidence	Four things that catch people out. (1) A child is anyone under 18 — there is no lower age of digital consent as there is in Europe, and targeted advertising to under-18s is banned outright. (2) A consent manager must be an Indian company with about $2.3m of net worth, so a foreign entity cannot be one. (3) If designated a 'significant' organisation you must have a data protection officer physically based in India who answers to the board. (4) The general law expressly preserves stricter sector rules, so its liberal transfer regime gives you nothing if you touch payments, insurance or telecom.High confidence
What's about to change?	One big date and one big gap. The big date is roughly August 2027, twelve months after publication, when Azerbaijan's minimum age of 16 for social network accounts starts. Providers must verify age using a bank card, an email address and a mobile number, must delete what they collected for that check immediately, and must open a local branch. The penalty ladder ends with a court ordering the platform's traffic in Azerbaijan cut by 90 per cent. The big gap is that the July 2026 cybersecurity law leaves the important lists and technical requirements to be written by ministries, and they are not out yet.High confidence	Three dates matter. 13 November 2026: consent managers must register. 13 May 2027: the whole law becomes enforceable, and the government has publicly refused to extend it or exempt startups. At some point before then, the Board should get its members — at which point enforcement switches on.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	Government — “Hökumət buludu”nun (G-cloud) yaradılması və “bulud” xidmətlərinin göstərilməsi sahəsində tədbirlər haqqında Azərbaycan Respublikası Prezidentinin Fərmanı	Payments — Storage of Payment System Data Telecoms — Telecommunications (Authorisation) Rules, 2026 Insurance — IRDAI (Maintenance of Information by Regulated Entities and Sharing of Information by the Authority) Regulations, 2025 Securities — Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework, control PR.DS.S2 All industries — Directions under section 70B(6) of the Information Technology Act, 2000