Compare countries

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

Countries

MalaysiaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Data can leave Malaysia, but you have to justify it yourself. Until 2024 the country ran an approved-destinations list; that list was scrapped and nothing replaced it. You now decide whether the destination protects data well enough, and you carry the risk if the regulator disagrees. Breaking the core duties is a crime, not a fine, and it can mean prison.
The catch: We found no industry in Malaysia where the law flatly bans data from leaving. But banks and insurers must talk to the central bank before putting critical systems on a public cloud for the first time, and government bodies sit outside the privacy law altogether and follow their own cloud rules instead. Check those two before assuming the general answer applies to you.
Does this apply to me?: It reaches you only if you are set up in Malaysia, or if you use equipment inside Malaysia to process the data. Simply selling to Malaysians from abroad, with all your servers elsewhere, is not obviously enough. We found no size or revenue threshold in the law, checked on 18 August 2026. If the equipment test is what catches you, you must appoint a representative who is established in Malaysia.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, but you must do the homework yourself. Malaysia used to publish a list of countries you were allowed to send data to. That list was abolished by the 2024 amendment and no replacement list has appeared. You may now send data abroad if the destination's law is substantially similar to Malaysia's, or protects the data at least as well. If it does not, you fall back on a short set of narrow exceptions.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: There is no list to check and no permission to ask for. You assess the destination yourself, write down why you think it is safe enough, and keep that record. If you cannot show the destination is good enough, you need one of the narrow exceptions, such as the person's consent or genuine need to perform a contract. Standard contract templates and group-wide rules were proposed in 2024 but the final guideline still had not been published on 18 August 2026.Medium confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Department of Personal Data Protection, which sits under the Ministry of Digital, is the privacy regulator. It is genuinely staffed: a new Commissioner took office on 3 September 2025, and the department published binding guidance and ran two public consultations during 2024 and 2025. What it has not done is punish much. The newest case on its own published penalty list dates from 2018.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: The ceiling is a general one: do not keep personal data longer than you need it for the reason you collected it. Two very specific deadlines sit under that. Paper forms used to collect personal data in a commercial deal must be destroyed within fourteen days. And you must run a disposal schedule that clears out data that has been inactive for twenty-four months. Other laws that force you to keep records for longer win over all of this.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: You have seventy-two hours from the breach to tell the privacy regulator. If the breach is likely to cause serious harm, you have a further seven days to tell the people affected. If you cannot gather everything in time you may report in stages, but you must finish within thirty days. Missing the report is a crime carrying a fine of up to 250,000 Malaysian ringgit, roughly 59,000 US dollars, or up to two years in prison.High confidence
What's the trap?: First, the law does not apply to the Federal or State Governments at all, so a leak by a public body gives you no privacy remedy. Second, penalties here are criminal: breaking the core duties can mean up to one million Malaysian ringgit, roughly 235,000 US dollars, or three years in prison. Third, your data protection officer must speak both Malay and English. Fourth, you must shred paper collection forms within fourteen days.High confidence
What's about to change?: The detail that makes sending data abroad workable is still missing. A consultation on rewriting the 2013 regulations opened on 25 August 2025 and those regulations are where the real rules are expected. A final cross-border transfer guideline was consulted on in October 2024 and still had not appeared by 18 August 2026. A national cloud policy was approved by Cabinet on 18 June 2025 but its terms are not public.Medium 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	MalaysiaChecked 18 August 2026	AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Data can leave Malaysia, but you have to justify it yourself. Until 2024 the country ran an approved-destinations list; that list was scrapped and nothing replaced it. You now decide whether the destination protects data well enough, and you carry the risk if the regulator disagrees. Breaking the core duties is a crime, not a fine, and it can mean prison.	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 Malaysia where the law flatly bans data from leaving. But banks and insurers must talk to the central bank before putting critical systems on a public cloud for the first time, and government bodies sit outside the privacy law altogether and follow their own cloud rules instead. Check those two before assuming the general answer applies to you.	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?	It reaches you only if you are set up in Malaysia, or if you use equipment inside Malaysia to process the data. Simply selling to Malaysians from abroad, with all your servers elsewhere, is not obviously enough. We found no size or revenue threshold in the law, checked on 18 August 2026. If the equipment test is what catches you, you must appoint a representative who is established in Malaysia.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, but you must do the homework yourself. Malaysia used to publish a list of countries you were allowed to send data to. That list was abolished by the 2024 amendment and no replacement list has appeared. You may now send data abroad if the destination's law is substantially similar to Malaysia's, or protects the data at least as well. If it does not, you fall back on a short set of narrow exceptions.Medium 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 list to check and no permission to ask for. You assess the destination yourself, write down why you think it is safe enough, and keep that record. If you cannot show the destination is good enough, you need one of the narrow exceptions, such as the person's consent or genuine need to perform a contract. Standard contract templates and group-wide rules were proposed in 2024 but the final guideline still had not been published on 18 August 2026.Medium 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 Department of Personal Data Protection, which sits under the Ministry of Digital, is the privacy regulator. It is genuinely staffed: a new Commissioner took office on 3 September 2025, and the department published binding guidance and ran two public consultations during 2024 and 2025. What it has not done is punish much. The newest case on its own published penalty list dates from 2018.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?	The ceiling is a general one: do not keep personal data longer than you need it for the reason you collected it. Two very specific deadlines sit under that. Paper forms used to collect personal data in a commercial deal must be destroyed within fourteen days. And you must run a disposal schedule that clears out data that has been inactive for twenty-four months. Other laws that force you to keep records for longer win over all of this.Medium 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 from the breach to tell the privacy regulator. If the breach is likely to cause serious harm, you have a further seven days to tell the people affected. If you cannot gather everything in time you may report in stages, but you must finish within thirty days. Missing the report is a crime carrying a fine of up to 250,000 Malaysian ringgit, roughly 59,000 US dollars, or up to two years in prison.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?	First, the law does not apply to the Federal or State Governments at all, so a leak by a public body gives you no privacy remedy. Second, penalties here are criminal: breaking the core duties can mean up to one million Malaysian ringgit, roughly 235,000 US dollars, or three years in prison. Third, your data protection officer must speak both Malay and English. Fourth, you must shred paper collection forms within fourteen days.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 detail that makes sending data abroad workable is still missing. A consultation on rewriting the 2013 regulations opened on 25 August 2025 and those regulations are where the real rules are expected. A final cross-border transfer guideline was consulted on in October 2024 and still had not appeared by 18 August 2026. A national cloud policy was approved by Cabinet on 18 June 2025 but its terms are not public.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	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