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Countries

NepalChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: MediumEnforcement: Dormant

In one paragraph: Nepal's privacy law says nothing about sending data abroad, so on paper data can leave freely. There is no privacy regulator at all: breaches are criminal matters taken to a local court, the maximum fine is about 215 US dollars, and no case has produced a public penalty. The real constraint is a 2025 rule on data centres and cloud services, which says customers may only buy hosting from providers on a government list.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you look at where the data physically sits. Since January 2025 anyone buying data centre or cloud services in Nepal is supposed to use only providers listed by the Department of Information Technology, and to get listed a provider must be a Nepal-registered company with a physical building in Nepal. Government security agencies must use the state's own data centre, other government bodies are being moved into it, and card payments made in Nepali rupees must be settled inside Nepal.
Does this apply to me?: It is unclear, and that is the honest answer. The Privacy Act covers public bodies and companies handling people's information, but it never says whether it reaches a company sitting outside Nepal, and it does not ask you to appoint anyone locally. Two other laws clearly do reach you from abroad: the computer-crime law applies to acts done outside Nepal that involve a computer located in Nepal, and the central bank's payment licensing policy expressly covers firms set up abroad that carry out payment business inside Nepal. There is no revenue or company-size threshold to fall below.Medium confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Under the privacy law, yes — it is silent on sending personal data out of Nepal, so there is nothing to comply with. But the country still has walls, and they are about where the machines are rather than where the data goes. Since January 2025 anyone buying data centre or cloud services is meant to use only providers on the government's published list, and listing requires a Nepal-registered company with a building in Nepal. Government security agencies must use the state's own data centre, and card payments made in Nepali rupees must be settled inside Nepal.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Nothing. There is no approval to get, no standard contract to sign and no list of approved countries, because Nepal's privacy law simply does not deal with sending data abroad. The control that does exist works the other way round: it is an approved-supplier list for hosting. The Department of Information Technology lists data centre and cloud providers, and customers are told to use only listed ones.Medium confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: For personal data, nobody. Nepal has no privacy regulator and no data protection authority. A person whose privacy is breached files a criminal complaint in their local district court within three months, and the court can also award compensation. The bodies that are genuinely active work on cyber security and on industry rules, not on privacy: the National Cyber Security Center published advisories as recently as April 2026, the telecoms authority collects security audit reports, the central bank issues payment directives, and the Department of Information Technology is running the data centre listing scheme.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a floor and almost no ceiling. Tax records must be kept for five years after the tax year ends. Telecom operators must keep security logs for at least six months and internet address-translation logs for at least three months. Data centres must keep camera footage for at least three months. Going the other way, the privacy law has no general delete-by date, so the only real deletion duty found is a telecom rule that says paper customer forms must be destroyed once they have been scanned.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There is no general duty to report a personal data breach in Nepal — not to a regulator, and not to the people affected. No rule found sets a deadline in hours. Two narrower duties do exist. A data centre or cloud provider that finds someone has got into its systems must tell the regulator and the National Cyber Security Center immediately, by the fastest means available. A telecom operator hit by a security incident must work with a standing task force at the telecoms authority.Medium confidence
What's the trap?: Five. First, privacy breaches are criminal, not administrative — the exposure is up to three years in prison for an individual, not a corporate fine. Second, a victim has only three months from the act to complain, so most claims die of old age. Third, your cloud vendor must be on the government's list, which makes this a supplier problem rather than a policy problem. Fourth, anyone under 18 needs a guardian's consent — there is no lower digital age. Fifth, the online-content offence in the electronic transactions law carries up to five years in prison for material judged contrary to public morality, and it is written vaguely enough to catch ordinary posts.High confidence
What's about to change?: No data protection law is on the way that we could find, and no bill for one is before parliament. What is moving is telecoms and broadcasting: the ministry published discussion papers for a new Telecommunications Bill and a National Mass Communication Bill on 5 August 2026. The telecoms authority is consulting on amending its 2020 cyber security rules, on a framework for streaming and messaging services, and on a rule to force the move to newer internet addressing.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: All industries — डाटा सेन्टर तथा क्लाउड सेवा (सञ्चालन तथा व्यवस्थापन) निर्देशिका, २०८१ (Data Center and Cloud Service (Operation and Management) Directives, 2081)
Payments — भुक्तानी प्रणालीसम्बन्धी एकीकृत निर्देशन, २०८२ (Unified Directive on Payment Systems, 2082)

ArgentinaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: MediumEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Argentina lets personal data leave the country, but only on paper terms it sets. You either send it to a country the regulator has approved, or you sign the regulator's own model contract with the receiver. No industry has to keep data inside Argentina. Fines are tiny in dollars, but the regulator can order a database shut down, and some misuse is a crime.
The catch: There is no data-residency wall in Argentina, but four sector rules still catch people out. Banks and payment firms must run their technology and security management from inside Argentina, must tell the banking supervisor before they outsource, and must report a cyber incident within one hour. Government bodies must have a working backup data centre by late 2026. And nobody may publish a map showing Argentine territory without the national mapping agency's prior approval.
Does this apply to me?: The main privacy law is Ley 25.326, passed in 2000. It covers personal data held in any file or database in Argentina, public or private. There is no size threshold, no revenue threshold, and no duty to appoint a local representative. The law does not clearly say it reaches a foreign company with no presence in Argentina, and in practice the regulator has acted against local subsidiaries of global firms rather than against foreign entities directly.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with paperwork. The rule is that personal data may not go to a country that does not protect it well enough. The regulator publishes a list of countries it accepts, and for everywhere else you sign its model contract with the receiver. We looked for industries that must keep data inside Argentina - banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, telecoms, government cloud and mapping - and found none as of 18 August 2026.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destinations list, and it is populated today with about a dozen places, including the whole European Union. If your destination is not on it, use the regulator's published model contract - two versions, one for handing data to another company that decides how to use it and one for a supplier processing it for you. Using the published wording needs no permission. If you change the wording, you must file the contract with the regulator within 30 days of signing.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Agency for Access to Public Information, known by its Spanish initials AAIP, enforces both privacy and freedom of information. It is real and working: it has a named head, it publishes a register of final penalties that was updated on 3 July 2026, it opened a public investigation into debt-collection calls in April 2026, and it chaired an international data-protection committee in July 2026. Its 244 final penalties are mostly small, and more than half are for calling people on the do-not-call list.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Argentina has strong floors and one hard ceiling. Anti-money-laundering rules make banks, insurers, crypto firms, accountants and estate agents keep transaction records and customer files for at least ten years. Clinical records must be kept ten years from the last entry. Banks must keep audit and accounting support data six years and produce it immediately on demand. The ceiling: credit-reporting data may only show the last five years, dropping to two years once the debt is paid.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There is no general duty to report a data breach in Argentina, checked on 18 August 2026 - the privacy law has no deadline and the regulator's security rules are recommendations, not commands. Finance is the exception and the clock is brutal: banks and registered payment firms must tell the banking supervisor within one hour of an incident happening or being spotted, keep sending updates, and file a closing report within five days.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things bite people. Answer times are very short: ten days for an access request and five working days to correct or delete. The maximum fine is one hundred thousand pesos, about seventy US dollars, so the real risk is a shutdown order or a criminal case, not the fine. Databases still have to be registered. Publishing a map of Argentina needs government approval first. And a bank cannot run its technology and security management from abroad.High confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing is scheduled to replace the privacy law. A reform bill went to Congress in 2023 and never became law; the regulator is still campaigning for a new one. The dated thing to watch is government cybersecurity: public bodies have about 180 days from 13 May 2026 to have contingency plans and a working alternative data centre, which lands around November 2026, and a new national cybersecurity centre started issuing rules in 2026.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	NepalChecked 18 August 2026	ArgentinaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Dormant	Yes, with paperwork Work: Medium Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Nepal's privacy law says nothing about sending data abroad, so on paper data can leave freely. There is no privacy regulator at all: breaches are criminal matters taken to a local court, the maximum fine is about 215 US dollars, and no case has produced a public penalty. The real constraint is a 2025 rule on data centres and cloud services, which says customers may only buy hosting from providers on a government list.	Argentina lets personal data leave the country, but only on paper terms it sets. You either send it to a country the regulator has approved, or you sign the regulator's own model contract with the receiver. No industry has to keep data inside Argentina. Fines are tiny in dollars, but the regulator can order a database shut down, and some misuse is a crime.
The catch	The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you look at where the data physically sits. Since January 2025 anyone buying data centre or cloud services in Nepal is supposed to use only providers listed by the Department of Information Technology, and to get listed a provider must be a Nepal-registered company with a physical building in Nepal. Government security agencies must use the state's own data centre, other government bodies are being moved into it, and card payments made in Nepali rupees must be settled inside Nepal.	There is no data-residency wall in Argentina, but four sector rules still catch people out. Banks and payment firms must run their technology and security management from inside Argentina, must tell the banking supervisor before they outsource, and must report a cyber incident within one hour. Government bodies must have a working backup data centre by late 2026. And nobody may publish a map showing Argentine territory without the national mapping agency's prior approval.
Does this apply to me?	It is unclear, and that is the honest answer. The Privacy Act covers public bodies and companies handling people's information, but it never says whether it reaches a company sitting outside Nepal, and it does not ask you to appoint anyone locally. Two other laws clearly do reach you from abroad: the computer-crime law applies to acts done outside Nepal that involve a computer located in Nepal, and the central bank's payment licensing policy expressly covers firms set up abroad that carry out payment business inside Nepal. There is no revenue or company-size threshold to fall below.Medium confidence	The main privacy law is Ley 25.326, passed in 2000. It covers personal data held in any file or database in Argentina, public or private. There is no size threshold, no revenue threshold, and no duty to appoint a local representative. The law does not clearly say it reaches a foreign company with no presence in Argentina, and in practice the regulator has acted against local subsidiaries of global firms rather than against foreign entities directly.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	Under the privacy law, yes — it is silent on sending personal data out of Nepal, so there is nothing to comply with. But the country still has walls, and they are about where the machines are rather than where the data goes. Since January 2025 anyone buying data centre or cloud services is meant to use only providers on the government's published list, and listing requires a Nepal-registered company with a building in Nepal. Government security agencies must use the state's own data centre, and card payments made in Nepali rupees must be settled inside Nepal.Medium confidence	Yes, with paperwork. The rule is that personal data may not go to a country that does not protect it well enough. The regulator publishes a list of countries it accepts, and for everywhere else you sign its model contract with the receiver. We looked for industries that must keep data inside Argentina - banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, telecoms, government cloud and mapping - and found none as of 18 August 2026.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	Nothing. There is no approval to get, no standard contract to sign and no list of approved countries, because Nepal's privacy law simply does not deal with sending data abroad. The control that does exist works the other way round: it is an approved-supplier list for hosting. The Department of Information Technology lists data centre and cloud providers, and customers are told to use only listed ones.Medium confidence	The model is an approved-destinations list, and it is populated today with about a dozen places, including the whole European Union. If your destination is not on it, use the regulator's published model contract - two versions, one for handing data to another company that decides how to use it and one for a supplier processing it for you. Using the published wording needs no permission. If you change the wording, you must file the contract with the regulator within 30 days of signing.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	For personal data, nobody. Nepal has no privacy regulator and no data protection authority. A person whose privacy is breached files a criminal complaint in their local district court within three months, and the court can also award compensation. The bodies that are genuinely active work on cyber security and on industry rules, not on privacy: the National Cyber Security Center published advisories as recently as April 2026, the telecoms authority collects security audit reports, the central bank issues payment directives, and the Department of Information Technology is running the data centre listing scheme.Medium confidence	The Agency for Access to Public Information, known by its Spanish initials AAIP, enforces both privacy and freedom of information. It is real and working: it has a named head, it publishes a register of final penalties that was updated on 3 July 2026, it opened a public investigation into debt-collection calls in April 2026, and it chaired an international data-protection committee in July 2026. Its 244 final penalties are mostly small, and more than half are for calling people on the do-not-call list.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	There is a floor and almost no ceiling. Tax records must be kept for five years after the tax year ends. Telecom operators must keep security logs for at least six months and internet address-translation logs for at least three months. Data centres must keep camera footage for at least three months. Going the other way, the privacy law has no general delete-by date, so the only real deletion duty found is a telecom rule that says paper customer forms must be destroyed once they have been scanned.Medium confidence	Argentina has strong floors and one hard ceiling. Anti-money-laundering rules make banks, insurers, crypto firms, accountants and estate agents keep transaction records and customer files for at least ten years. Clinical records must be kept ten years from the last entry. Banks must keep audit and accounting support data six years and produce it immediately on demand. The ceiling: credit-reporting data may only show the last five years, dropping to two years once the debt is paid.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	There is no general duty to report a personal data breach in Nepal — not to a regulator, and not to the people affected. No rule found sets a deadline in hours. Two narrower duties do exist. A data centre or cloud provider that finds someone has got into its systems must tell the regulator and the National Cyber Security Center immediately, by the fastest means available. A telecom operator hit by a security incident must work with a standing task force at the telecoms authority.Medium confidence	There is no general duty to report a data breach in Argentina, checked on 18 August 2026 - the privacy law has no deadline and the regulator's security rules are recommendations, not commands. Finance is the exception and the clock is brutal: banks and registered payment firms must tell the banking supervisor within one hour of an incident happening or being spotted, keep sending updates, and file a closing report within five days.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five. First, privacy breaches are criminal, not administrative — the exposure is up to three years in prison for an individual, not a corporate fine. Second, a victim has only three months from the act to complain, so most claims die of old age. Third, your cloud vendor must be on the government's list, which makes this a supplier problem rather than a policy problem. Fourth, anyone under 18 needs a guardian's consent — there is no lower digital age. Fifth, the online-content offence in the electronic transactions law carries up to five years in prison for material judged contrary to public morality, and it is written vaguely enough to catch ordinary posts.High confidence	Five things bite people. Answer times are very short: ten days for an access request and five working days to correct or delete. The maximum fine is one hundred thousand pesos, about seventy US dollars, so the real risk is a shutdown order or a criminal case, not the fine. Databases still have to be registered. Publishing a map of Argentina needs government approval first. And a bank cannot run its technology and security management from abroad.High confidence
What's about to change?	No data protection law is on the way that we could find, and no bill for one is before parliament. What is moving is telecoms and broadcasting: the ministry published discussion papers for a new Telecommunications Bill and a National Mass Communication Bill on 5 August 2026. The telecoms authority is consulting on amending its 2020 cyber security rules, on a framework for streaming and messaging services, and on a rule to force the move to newer internet addressing.Medium confidence	Nothing is scheduled to replace the privacy law. A reform bill went to Congress in 2023 and never became law; the regulator is still campaigning for a new one. The dated thing to watch is government cybersecurity: public bodies have about 180 days from 13 May 2026 to have contingency plans and a working alternative data centre, which lands around November 2026, and a new national cybersecurity centre started issuing rules in 2026.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall	All industries — डाटा सेन्टर तथा क्लाउड सेवा (सञ्चालन तथा व्यवस्थापन) निर्देशिका, २०८१ (Data Center and Cloud Service (Operation and Management) Directives, 2081) Payments — भुक्तानी प्रणालीसम्बन्धी एकीकृत निर्देशन, २०८२ (Unified Directive on Payment Systems, 2082)	None found.