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

Countries

JamaicaChecked 19 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Dormant

In one paragraph: Jamaica lets personal data leave the island, but only to places that protect it well enough. You decide that yourself, because the government has never published a list of approved countries. The rules on paper are heavy: you must register, you may need a data protection officer, and breaking them is a crime, not just a fine. In practice almost nothing is enforced.
The catch: We found no industry in Jamaica that forces data to stay on the island. But banks, insurers, investment firms and government bodies each add their own layer on top: extra approvals, a 72-hour report to their own regulator, and a promise that the regulator can still reach the data when it sits on someone else's servers abroad.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The law reaches a company with no office in Jamaica if it offers products or services to people in Jamaica, watches what they do in Jamaica, or uses equipment in Jamaica to handle the data. There is no size or revenue cut-off, so a one-person business is caught the same as a bank. If you have no establishment in Jamaica you must appoint a representative who is based there.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with conditions. The rule is that personal data must not go to a country outside Jamaica unless that country gives people adequate protection. Nobody in government has published a list of which countries pass, so in practice you make the judgement yourself and keep the reasoning. We found no industry in Jamaica that is banned from sending data abroad, and no rule anywhere requiring a copy to stay on the island.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: There is no form to file and no approval to wait for. You must satisfy yourself that the destination protects people's data well enough, write down why, and list that country when you register. If the destination does not pass, you can still send data using one of the exceptions in the law, such as the person's clear consent or a genuine need to perform a contract. The government has published no list of approved countries and no standard contract you can sign, so nothing is pre-approved for you.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Office of the Information Commissioner is the regulator. It exists, it has a Commissioner and a deputy, and it answers the phone, but it is not enforcing. In June 2026 the responsible Minister told Parliament in plain words that the law is not being enforced because the office was set up with a temporary structure and too few trained staff. Its own website has published no annual reports, its oversight committee page is blank, and the registration system has been switched off since March 2026 with a promise that nobody will be penalised while it is down.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Jamaica sets no single number. The ceiling is a duty to get rid of personal data once you no longer need it, and to destroy it so thoroughly that it cannot be put back together or linked to anyone. You must also write down your own minimum and maximum keeping periods. The floor comes from other laws: banks and other financial firms must keep transaction records for at least seven years, and that beats the delete duty.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: You have seventy-two hours to tell the regulator, and, unusually, seventy-two hours to tell the affected people as well. Most countries give you longer for the second one. Banks must also tell the Bank of Jamaica within seventy-two hours, and insurers, pension funds and investment firms must tell the Financial Services Commission within seventy-two hours. All these clocks start when you become aware, and they run at the same time. Missing the first one is a criminal offence.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things bite people here. Breaking this law is a crime, and a company can be fined up to four percent of its worldwide turnover by a court. Government bodies cannot be prosecuted at all. You must tell affected individuals within seventy-two hours, not merely as soon as reasonable. If your data protection officer lives abroad, you must give that officer a stand-in who lives in Jamaica. And you can be told to charge someone for a copy of their own data, which sounds generous but means you must have a fee process at all.High confidence
What's about to change?: The main thing coming is enforcement itself. In June 2026 the responsible Minister told Parliament that the regulator's full budget was approved, a working group is running, and the oversight committee appointments are nearly done, after which the enforcement provisions will be switched on. The Bank of Jamaica is consulting until 30 October 2026 on a new outsourcing and third-party risk standard for banks. A draft national artificial intelligence policy is due by November 2026, and the Act itself falls due for its first five-yearly review from 1 December 2026.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

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	JamaicaChecked 19 August 2026	AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Dormant	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Jamaica lets personal data leave the island, but only to places that protect it well enough. You decide that yourself, because the government has never published a list of approved countries. The rules on paper are heavy: you must register, you may need a data protection officer, and breaking them is a crime, not just a fine. In practice almost nothing is enforced.	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	We found no industry in Jamaica that forces data to stay on the island. But banks, insurers, investment firms and government bodies each add their own layer on top: extra approvals, a 72-hour report to their own regulator, and a promise that the regulator can still reach the data when it sits on someone else's servers abroad.	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 Jamaica if it offers products or services to people in Jamaica, watches what they do in Jamaica, or uses equipment in Jamaica to handle the data. There is no size or revenue cut-off, so a one-person business is caught the same as a bank. If you have no establishment in Jamaica you must appoint a representative who is based there.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?	Yes, with conditions. The rule is that personal data must not go to a country outside Jamaica unless that country gives people adequate protection. Nobody in government has published a list of which countries pass, so in practice you make the judgement yourself and keep the reasoning. We found no industry in Jamaica that is banned from sending data abroad, and no rule anywhere requiring a copy to stay on the island.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?	There is no form to file and no approval to wait for. You must satisfy yourself that the destination protects people's data well enough, write down why, and list that country when you register. If the destination does not pass, you can still send data using one of the exceptions in the law, such as the person's clear consent or a genuine need to perform a contract. The government has published no list of approved countries and no standard contract you can sign, so nothing is pre-approved for you.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?	The Office of the Information Commissioner is the regulator. It exists, it has a Commissioner and a deputy, and it answers the phone, but it is not enforcing. In June 2026 the responsible Minister told Parliament in plain words that the law is not being enforced because the office was set up with a temporary structure and too few trained staff. Its own website has published no annual reports, its oversight committee page is blank, and the registration system has been switched off since March 2026 with a promise that nobody will be penalised while it is down.High 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?	Jamaica sets no single number. The ceiling is a duty to get rid of personal data once you no longer need it, and to destroy it so thoroughly that it cannot be put back together or linked to anyone. You must also write down your own minimum and maximum keeping periods. The floor comes from other laws: banks and other financial firms must keep transaction records for at least seven years, and that beats the delete duty.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?	You have seventy-two hours to tell the regulator, and, unusually, seventy-two hours to tell the affected people as well. Most countries give you longer for the second one. Banks must also tell the Bank of Jamaica within seventy-two hours, and insurers, pension funds and investment firms must tell the Financial Services Commission within seventy-two hours. All these clocks start when you become aware, and they run at the same time. Missing the first one is a criminal offence.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 bite people here. Breaking this law is a crime, and a company can be fined up to four percent of its worldwide turnover by a court. Government bodies cannot be prosecuted at all. You must tell affected individuals within seventy-two hours, not merely as soon as reasonable. If your data protection officer lives abroad, you must give that officer a stand-in who lives in Jamaica. And you can be told to charge someone for a copy of their own data, which sounds generous but means you must have a fee process at all.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?	The main thing coming is enforcement itself. In June 2026 the responsible Minister told Parliament that the regulator's full budget was approved, a working group is running, and the oversight committee appointments are nearly done, after which the enforcement provisions will be switched on. The Bank of Jamaica is consulting until 30 October 2026 on a new outsourcing and third-party risk standard for banks. A draft national artificial intelligence policy is due by November 2026, and the Act itself falls due for its first five-yearly review from 1 December 2026.High 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	None found.	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