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

Countries

PanamaChecked 19 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: MediumEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Panama lets personal data leave the country. You do not need a permit and no destination country is banned. You just need one of thirteen legal reasons listed in the law, and since June 2026 there is an official model contract you can sign to cover yourself. The regulator writes rules and guidance but we found no published fines. Banks and government bodies face extra approval steps.
The catch: The relaxed headline is about where data may sit. It is not the whole story for two groups. A bank cannot hand its data processing to an outside supplier without written permission from the banking regulator first. A government body cannot put a citizen-facing system live without written permission from the state technology authority first. Neither of those is a rule about staying in Panama, but both can stop a project dead.
Does this apply to me?: Probably not, if you have nothing in Panama. The law reaches databases physically held in Panama, and it reaches anyone who is legally based in Panama. It does not say it reaches a company abroad that has no database and no office here just because it sells to Panamanians. There is no size or revenue cut-off, and we found no rule forcing a foreign firm to appoint a local representative.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes. Nothing has to stay in Panama. We found no rule in any industry that forces personal data to be stored inside the country. Sending data abroad is lawful if you meet any one of thirteen conditions in the law, such as the person's consent, a contract with the person, a company group transfer, a destination with equal or better protection, or an approved model contract. Two industries add a permission step that is about who handles the data, not where it sits.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: No government permission is needed, and there is no list of approved or banned countries. You pick one of the thirteen legal grounds and you keep evidence. Since 8 June 2026 there is an easier route: the regulator has published official model contract clauses. If you sign those, you do not have to ask the regulator for permission. Sensitive data, such as health or biometric records, needs the person's explicit agreement.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information, through its Personal Data Protection Directorate. It exists, it is contactable, and it is clearly working: it issued a compliance circular in April 2026 and adopted official model contract clauses in June 2026. But we could not find a single published fine or enforcement decision on its own website. Treat it as waking up, not asleep and not aggressive.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is no general minimum keeping period in the privacy law, and there is one striking ceiling. You must not keep personal data longer than the purpose needs. On top of that, you must not pass on or share data about an identifiable person more than seven years after the legal duty to keep it ended, unless that person expressly asks you to. Separate rules bite elsewhere: electronic certificate records must be kept seven years, and a person can demand deletion of data that is out of date or held without a legal basis.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: One main clock: 72 hours. If personal data is breached, you must tell the regulator within 72 hours of finding out, in writing, on paper or by email. The notice must set out what happened, which data was affected, what you fixed immediately, what the person should do, where they can get more information, when it happened and why. You must also record every breach, at any stage of processing.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that catch people out. One: a person can sue you directly in court under the constitution using a fast-track action called habeas data, with no lawyer needed, whether or not the regulator ever acts. Two: the worst penalty is not a fine, it is an order shutting your database or suspending your processing. Three: if you are regulated by a special law, such as a bank, the general privacy law may not apply to you at all. Four: you must not pass on personal data more than seven years after your duty to keep it ended. Five: a bank cannot outsource sensitive data handling without written permission first.High confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing new is scheduled to start in the next twelve months that we could confirm from a government source. The important recent changes have already landed: official model contract clauses in June 2026, a compliance circular in April 2026, and two state technology rules in May and June 2026. Watch instead for powers the government already holds and can use at any time without warning.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	PanamaChecked 19 August 2026	AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: Medium Enforcement: Waking up	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Panama lets personal data leave the country. You do not need a permit and no destination country is banned. You just need one of thirteen legal reasons listed in the law, and since June 2026 there is an official model contract you can sign to cover yourself. The regulator writes rules and guidance but we found no published fines. Banks and government bodies face extra approval steps.	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 is about where data may sit. It is not the whole story for two groups. A bank cannot hand its data processing to an outside supplier without written permission from the banking regulator first. A government body cannot put a citizen-facing system live without written permission from the state technology authority first. Neither of those is a rule about staying in Panama, but both can stop a project dead.	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?	Probably not, if you have nothing in Panama. The law reaches databases physically held in Panama, and it reaches anyone who is legally based in Panama. It does not say it reaches a company abroad that has no database and no office here just because it sells to Panamanians. There is no size or revenue cut-off, and we found no rule forcing a foreign firm to appoint a local representative.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. Nothing has to stay in Panama. We found no rule in any industry that forces personal data to be stored inside the country. Sending data abroad is lawful if you meet any one of thirteen conditions in the law, such as the person's consent, a contract with the person, a company group transfer, a destination with equal or better protection, or an approved model contract. Two industries add a permission step that is about who handles the data, not where it sits.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?	No government permission is needed, and there is no list of approved or banned countries. You pick one of the thirteen legal grounds and you keep evidence. Since 8 June 2026 there is an easier route: the regulator has published official model contract clauses. If you sign those, you do not have to ask the regulator for permission. Sensitive data, such as health or biometric records, needs the person's explicit agreement.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 National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information, through its Personal Data Protection Directorate. It exists, it is contactable, and it is clearly working: it issued a compliance circular in April 2026 and adopted official model contract clauses in June 2026. But we could not find a single published fine or enforcement decision on its own website. Treat it as waking up, not asleep and not aggressive.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 no general minimum keeping period in the privacy law, and there is one striking ceiling. You must not keep personal data longer than the purpose needs. On top of that, you must not pass on or share data about an identifiable person more than seven years after the legal duty to keep it ended, unless that person expressly asks you to. Separate rules bite elsewhere: electronic certificate records must be kept seven years, and a person can demand deletion of data that is out of date or held without a legal basis.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?	One main clock: 72 hours. If personal data is breached, you must tell the regulator within 72 hours of finding out, in writing, on paper or by email. The notice must set out what happened, which data was affected, what you fixed immediately, what the person should do, where they can get more information, when it happened and why. You must also record every breach, at any stage of processing.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. One: a person can sue you directly in court under the constitution using a fast-track action called habeas data, with no lawyer needed, whether or not the regulator ever acts. Two: the worst penalty is not a fine, it is an order shutting your database or suspending your processing. Three: if you are regulated by a special law, such as a bank, the general privacy law may not apply to you at all. Four: you must not pass on personal data more than seven years after your duty to keep it ended. Five: a bank cannot outsource sensitive data handling without written permission first.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?	Nothing new is scheduled to start in the next twelve months that we could confirm from a government source. The important recent changes have already landed: official model contract clauses in June 2026, a compliance circular in April 2026, and two state technology rules in May and June 2026. Watch instead for powers the government already holds and can use at any time without warning.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