Compare countries

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

Countries

GhanaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: MediumEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Ghana's main privacy law does not stop personal data leaving the country. You simply tell the regulator, when you register, which countries you send data to. The real work is elsewhere: you must be on the public register before you touch anyone's data, you must report a cyber incident within 24 hours, and banks and payment firms need the central bank's permission before moving to the cloud.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops being true in three places. Banks, payment firms and other lenders need the Bank of Ghana's approval to move to the cloud, and their data may only sit in countries the Bank of Ghana has approved. Any company asked to install lawful-interception equipment must keep that equipment inside Ghana, with no remote access from abroad. And government bodies are steered onto the state's own cloud and national data centre.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The law reaches a company with no office in Ghana in two ways: if it uses equipment or a supplier in Ghana to process the data, or if the information came from Ghana in the first place. There is no size or revenue threshold, so a two-person startup is caught exactly like a bank. A foreign company that is caught must also register locally as an external company, which in practice means having a Ghanaian address and named representatives.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes, and with no paperwork. Ghana's privacy law contains no rule stopping personal data going abroad and no list of approved or banned countries. But three pockets override that. Money: banks, payment firms and other lenders may only keep data in countries the central bank has approved, and need its permission before moving to the cloud. Surveillance kit: if you are ordered to install interception equipment, that equipment must stay in Ghana. Government: state bodies are pushed onto the national cloud and national data centre.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Under the general law, nothing. There is no standard contract to sign, no government permission to seek, and no list of approved destinations. The only thing you must do is name the countries you send data to when you register, and keep that entry accurate. If you are a bank, a payment firm or a lender, that freedom disappears and you need the central bank's approval instead.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: Two very different regulators. The Data Protection Commission exists, is staffed and has an Executive Director, and it runs the public register, training and accreditation - but we found no published fines or decisions against any named company. The Cyber Security Authority is the one with teeth: it licenses cybersecurity firms, publicly warns that unlicensed practice is illegal, and works on live criminal investigations. The Bank of Ghana enforces its own rules on the firms it licenses.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a floor and a ceiling, and they point in opposite directions. The privacy law says delete personal data once you no longer need it, and destroy it so it cannot be pieced back together. The cybersecurity law says a service provider must keep customer account information for at least six years, and connection and content records for twelve months. Where a law tells you to keep something, the privacy law's delete duty gives way.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count three clocks, not one. Any organisation must report a cyber incident to the national or its sector response team within 24 hours of detecting it. Separately, if personal data has been accessed by someone who should not have it, you must tell the privacy regulator and the affected people as soon as reasonably practicable - no fixed hours, which sounds softer but is harder to defend. Critical infrastructure operators carry a third duty: report weaknesses found in a security test within 72 hours.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that catch people out. You may not process personal data at all until you are on the register, so the paperwork is a gate, not a formality. Penalties are criminal, with prison terms, rather than European-style fines. Selling cybersecurity services in Ghana needs a licence from the cybersecurity regulator. If you are told to install interception equipment, it must stay in Ghana, and the chief executive and finance chief can personally be treated as having committed the offence. And the retention duty for service providers is written widely enough to reach cloud and hosting firms.High confidence
What's about to change?: One big thing is coming: a new Data Protection Bill. The regulator published a draft in November 2025 and asked for comments. If passed in its current shape it would be a sharp turn - some categories of data would have to stay in Ghana, and sending personal data abroad would need the person's written consent plus, for large-scale transfers, the regulator's approval. As of today the draft has not been laid before Parliament, so nothing in it binds anyone yet.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Telecoms — Cybersecurity Act, 2020 - sections 76 and 77
All industries — Data Protection Bill, 2025 (draft published for public comment, November 2025)

AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Data can leave Algeria, but not freely. Every transfer abroad needs the national data protection authority's permission unless a listed exception applies, and breaking that rule is a crime carrying prison. Since July 2025 every organisation must have a data protection officer, a processing register and an automatic log of every operation. The regulator is staffed but has issued no known decisions.
The catch: The national rule is already strict, and three areas are stricter still. Online shops must run their site on servers inside Algeria under a .com.dz address. Electronic trust services, such as digital signatures and electronic identity, must host all the data they collect inside Algeria. Public bodies must exchange data only over a state-run network that is deliberately kept separate from the internet. Banking, insurance and securities have no storage rule that we could find, but the central bank's own website could not be reached, so treat that as unchecked rather than settled.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it can reach a company with no office in Algeria, but the trigger is equipment, not customers. You are covered if you are set up in Algeria, or if you use any means of processing located in Algeria, such as servers or devices. In that second case you must tell the regulator the name of a representative based in Algeria, and that person takes on your rights and duties. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with permission or a listed excuse. The starting rule is that you may only send personal data to another country if the national data protection authority allows it and that country protects privacy well enough. There is a short list of exceptions that most businesses will rely on instead, such as the person's express consent or a transfer that is needed to carry out their contract. Two things are banned outright: transfers that could harm public safety or the state's vital interests, and any processing of sensitive data such as health, religion, politics or trade union membership unless a narrow exception applies.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is case by case. Before data goes abroad you need the national data protection authority to authorise it, and the destination country must protect privacy well enough in the authority's judgement. There is no published list of approved countries and no official standard contract you can sign instead. In practice most companies rely on the written exceptions: the person's express consent, a transfer needed for their contract, a court claim, saving someone's life, an important public interest, an international mutual legal assistance request, medical care, or a treaty Algeria has signed.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The national data protection authority, and it does exist in real life. Fifteen members, including a president, were appointed by presidential decree on 18 May 2022 for five years, a new president was appointed in October 2023, and the authority has its own staff, pay scales, an executive secretariat, an official bulletin and internal committees. Its president was still signing published decisions in August 2025. What is missing is enforcement: in four years the official gazette shows only housekeeping texts from the authority, and no fine, order or filing procedure. Treat it as awake but not yet biting.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a floor and a ceiling, and the floor is the one people miss. Accounting books and the paperwork behind them must be kept for ten years after the end of each financial year. Telephone and internet providers must keep the data that identifies users and their connections for one year. Online sellers must keep records of every transaction and send them to the national trade register centre. The ceiling is that personal data must not be kept in a form that identifies people for longer than the purpose needs, and keeping it too long is a crime.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There is no seventy-two hour clock here, and the five-day deadline people quote is not for ordinary businesses. If you provide a service over a public electronic communications network and data is destroyed, lost, altered, disclosed or accessed without permission, you must warn the authority and the affected person straight away, with no fixed number of hours. Failing to do that is a crime punishable by one to three years in prison. The five-day deadline added in July 2025 applies to police, prosecutors, courts and prison services, not to a normal company.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that cost people their weekend. One: this is a criminal regime. Sending data abroad in breach of the rule is punished by one to five years in prison and a fine of up to one million dinars, roughly seven thousand seven hundred US dollars, and prison can attach to individuals. Two: since 24 July 2025 every organisation must appoint a data protection officer, keep a written register of processing and keep an automatic log recording every collection, consultation, disclosure and deletion, with no exemption for small companies. Three: sensitive data is banned by default, and consent must be express, so silence or a pre-ticked box is worth nothing. Four: anything to do with national defence and security now sits completely outside the law, so there is no privacy protection to point to there. Five: a 2021 ordinance makes it a crime to disclose classified administrative documents, it reaches acts committed outside Algeria against the Algerian state, and it can force any person to hand over stored data.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three things to watch in the next twelve months. The five-year terms of the data protection authority's members, appointed on 18 May 2022, run out in May 2027, so appointments are due. The regional inspection and audit units created for the authority in July 2025 still need an implementing regulation before inspectors can appear at your door. And the rules that switch on the new government data framework, two reference documents on classifying data and cataloguing data sources, can be published by a single decision of the High Commission for Digitalisation, at which point every public body and every company running a public service must classify and catalogue its data.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Telecoms — Loi n° 26-02 fixant les regles generales relatives aux services de confiance pour les transactions electroniques et a l'identification electronique
E-commerce — Loi n° 18-05 relative au commerce electronique
Government — Decret presidentiel n° 25-320 portant mise en place d'un dispositif national de gouvernance des donnees

The same eight topics answered for each selected country
Question	GhanaChecked 18 August 2026	AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Waking up	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Ghana's main privacy law does not stop personal data leaving the country. You simply tell the regulator, when you register, which countries you send data to. The real work is elsewhere: you must be on the public register before you touch anyone's data, you must report a cyber incident within 24 hours, and banks and payment firms need the central bank's permission before moving to the cloud.	Data can leave Algeria, but not freely. Every transfer abroad needs the national data protection authority's permission unless a listed exception applies, and breaking that rule is a crime carrying prison. Since July 2025 every organisation must have a data protection officer, a processing register and an automatic log of every operation. The regulator is staffed but has issued no known decisions.
The catch	The relaxed headline stops being true in three places. Banks, payment firms and other lenders need the Bank of Ghana's approval to move to the cloud, and their data may only sit in countries the Bank of Ghana has approved. Any company asked to install lawful-interception equipment must keep that equipment inside Ghana, with no remote access from abroad. And government bodies are steered onto the state's own cloud and national data centre.	The national rule is already strict, and three areas are stricter still. Online shops must run their site on servers inside Algeria under a .com.dz address. Electronic trust services, such as digital signatures and electronic identity, must host all the data they collect inside Algeria. Public bodies must exchange data only over a state-run network that is deliberately kept separate from the internet. Banking, insurance and securities have no storage rule that we could find, but the central bank's own website could not be reached, so treat that as unchecked rather than settled.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. The law reaches a company with no office in Ghana in two ways: if it uses equipment or a supplier in Ghana to process the data, or if the information came from Ghana in the first place. There is no size or revenue threshold, so a two-person startup is caught exactly like a bank. A foreign company that is caught must also register locally as an external company, which in practice means having a Ghanaian address and named representatives.High confidence	Yes, it can reach a company with no office in Algeria, but the trigger is equipment, not customers. You are covered if you are set up in Algeria, or if you use any means of processing located in Algeria, such as servers or devices. In that second case you must tell the regulator the name of a representative based in Algeria, and that person takes on your rights and duties. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	In general, yes, and with no paperwork. Ghana's privacy law contains no rule stopping personal data going abroad and no list of approved or banned countries. But three pockets override that. Money: banks, payment firms and other lenders may only keep data in countries the central bank has approved, and need its permission before moving to the cloud. Surveillance kit: if you are ordered to install interception equipment, that equipment must stay in Ghana. Government: state bodies are pushed onto the national cloud and national data centre.High confidence	Yes, with permission or a listed excuse. The starting rule is that you may only send personal data to another country if the national data protection authority allows it and that country protects privacy well enough. There is a short list of exceptions that most businesses will rely on instead, such as the person's express consent or a transfer that is needed to carry out their contract. Two things are banned outright: transfers that could harm public safety or the state's vital interests, and any processing of sensitive data such as health, religion, politics or trade union membership unless a narrow exception applies.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	Under the general law, nothing. There is no standard contract to sign, no government permission to seek, and no list of approved destinations. The only thing you must do is name the countries you send data to when you register, and keep that entry accurate. If you are a bank, a payment firm or a lender, that freedom disappears and you need the central bank's approval instead.High confidence	The model is case by case. Before data goes abroad you need the national data protection authority to authorise it, and the destination country must protect privacy well enough in the authority's judgement. There is no published list of approved countries and no official standard contract you can sign instead. In practice most companies rely on the written exceptions: the person's express consent, a transfer needed for their contract, a court claim, saving someone's life, an important public interest, an international mutual legal assistance request, medical care, or a treaty Algeria has signed.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	Two very different regulators. The Data Protection Commission exists, is staffed and has an Executive Director, and it runs the public register, training and accreditation - but we found no published fines or decisions against any named company. The Cyber Security Authority is the one with teeth: it licenses cybersecurity firms, publicly warns that unlicensed practice is illegal, and works on live criminal investigations. The Bank of Ghana enforces its own rules on the firms it licenses.Medium confidence	The national data protection authority, and it does exist in real life. Fifteen members, including a president, were appointed by presidential decree on 18 May 2022 for five years, a new president was appointed in October 2023, and the authority has its own staff, pay scales, an executive secretariat, an official bulletin and internal committees. Its president was still signing published decisions in August 2025. What is missing is enforcement: in four years the official gazette shows only housekeeping texts from the authority, and no fine, order or filing procedure. Treat it as awake but not yet biting.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	There is a floor and a ceiling, and they point in opposite directions. The privacy law says delete personal data once you no longer need it, and destroy it so it cannot be pieced back together. The cybersecurity law says a service provider must keep customer account information for at least six years, and connection and content records for twelve months. Where a law tells you to keep something, the privacy law's delete duty gives way.High confidence	There is a floor and a ceiling, and the floor is the one people miss. Accounting books and the paperwork behind them must be kept for ten years after the end of each financial year. Telephone and internet providers must keep the data that identifies users and their connections for one year. Online sellers must keep records of every transaction and send them to the national trade register centre. The ceiling is that personal data must not be kept in a form that identifies people for longer than the purpose needs, and keeping it too long is a crime.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count three clocks, not one. Any organisation must report a cyber incident to the national or its sector response team within 24 hours of detecting it. Separately, if personal data has been accessed by someone who should not have it, you must tell the privacy regulator and the affected people as soon as reasonably practicable - no fixed hours, which sounds softer but is harder to defend. Critical infrastructure operators carry a third duty: report weaknesses found in a security test within 72 hours.High confidence	There is no seventy-two hour clock here, and the five-day deadline people quote is not for ordinary businesses. If you provide a service over a public electronic communications network and data is destroyed, lost, altered, disclosed or accessed without permission, you must warn the authority and the affected person straight away, with no fixed number of hours. Failing to do that is a crime punishable by one to three years in prison. The five-day deadline added in July 2025 applies to police, prosecutors, courts and prison services, not to a normal company.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five things that catch people out. You may not process personal data at all until you are on the register, so the paperwork is a gate, not a formality. Penalties are criminal, with prison terms, rather than European-style fines. Selling cybersecurity services in Ghana needs a licence from the cybersecurity regulator. If you are told to install interception equipment, it must stay in Ghana, and the chief executive and finance chief can personally be treated as having committed the offence. And the retention duty for service providers is written widely enough to reach cloud and hosting firms.High confidence	Five things that cost people their weekend. One: this is a criminal regime. Sending data abroad in breach of the rule is punished by one to five years in prison and a fine of up to one million dinars, roughly seven thousand seven hundred US dollars, and prison can attach to individuals. Two: since 24 July 2025 every organisation must appoint a data protection officer, keep a written register of processing and keep an automatic log recording every collection, consultation, disclosure and deletion, with no exemption for small companies. Three: sensitive data is banned by default, and consent must be express, so silence or a pre-ticked box is worth nothing. Four: anything to do with national defence and security now sits completely outside the law, so there is no privacy protection to point to there. Five: a 2021 ordinance makes it a crime to disclose classified administrative documents, it reaches acts committed outside Algeria against the Algerian state, and it can force any person to hand over stored data.High confidence
What's about to change?	One big thing is coming: a new Data Protection Bill. The regulator published a draft in November 2025 and asked for comments. If passed in its current shape it would be a sharp turn - some categories of data would have to stay in Ghana, and sending personal data abroad would need the person's written consent plus, for large-scale transfers, the regulator's approval. As of today the draft has not been laid before Parliament, so nothing in it binds anyone yet.Medium confidence	Three things to watch in the next twelve months. The five-year terms of the data protection authority's members, appointed on 18 May 2022, run out in May 2027, so appointments are due. The regional inspection and audit units created for the authority in July 2025 still need an implementing regulation before inspectors can appear at your door. And the rules that switch on the new government data framework, two reference documents on classifying data and cataloguing data sources, can be published by a single decision of the High Commission for Digitalisation, at which point every public body and every company running a public service must classify and catalogue its data.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	Telecoms — Cybersecurity Act, 2020 - sections 76 and 77 All industries — Data Protection Bill, 2025 (draft published for public comment, November 2025)	Telecoms — Loi n° 26-02 fixant les regles generales relatives aux services de confiance pour les transactions electroniques et a l'identification electronique E-commerce — Loi n° 18-05 relative au commerce electronique Government — Decret presidentiel n° 25-320 portant mise en place d'un dispositif national de gouvernance des donnees