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Countries

Saudi ArabiaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Data can leave Saudi Arabia, but never for free. You need a purpose the law allows, a written safeguard such as the government's own standard contract, and a written risk assessment that asks whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom itself. Banks need the central bank's written permission before anything goes abroad. The privacy regulator is fully set up but publishes no fines.
The catch: The 'paperwork and you can send it' answer is true for an ordinary business. It is false for banks and finance companies, where the central bank must give written no-objection first and cloud is expected to sit inside the country. It is also unsettled for government bodies and critical national infrastructure: the old rule forcing them to host inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024 and replaced by a duty to ask a government office for a decision, and that office has published no replacement rule.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The law reaches a company anywhere in the world with no office in Saudi Arabia, as long as it handles the data of people living in the Kingdom. There is no size, revenue or headcount threshold to fall below. There is no general duty to appoint a local representative, but many organisations must register on the government's data platform and some must name a data protection officer.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with real paperwork. First the reason for sending it has to be on the government's short list of allowed purposes. Then you need a safeguard: the government's own standard contract, approved group-wide rules, or a certificate from a licensed body. Then you must write a risk assessment that includes whether the transfer could damage the Kingdom's vital interests. Two industries are much harder. Banks and finance companies must get the central bank's written no-objection before any data goes to an overseas supplier, and the central bank's rules say cloud services should sit inside Saudi Arabia unless it approves otherwise. For government bodies and critical national infrastructure the picture changed in 2024 and is now genuinely unclear.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destination list, and the list is empty. The law says data may go to a country the regulator has judged good enough, but no such list has been published, so in practice nobody uses that route. Instead almost everyone relies on the escape hatches: sign the government's word-for-word standard contract, or get approved group-wide rules for a multinational, or send to a body holding a certificate from a licensed Saudi accreditation body. On top of that you must run a written risk assessment before the data moves.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority is the privacy regulator, and it is genuinely up and running. Its National Data Governance Platform is live and takes registrations, self-assessments, breach reports and complaints, and it has published the rulebook for the panels that hear violations and issue fines. What we could not find is a single published fine or named decision, so how hard it bites is still unknown. The financial regulator and the cybersecurity authority, by contrast, have supervised their sectors for years.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions apply, and the floor wins when they clash. The ceiling: you must destroy personal data without undue delay once the reason you collected it has gone, and also when someone asks, when they withdraw the only consent you relied on, or when you learn you processed it unlawfully. Destruction must reach backups too. The floor: your written record of processing activities must be kept for five years after the activity ends. If another law sets a keeping period, the law says keep the data until whichever is longer.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: The main clock is 72 hours. If personal data is breached, lost or accessed unlawfully and that could harm the people involved, you must tell the privacy regulator within 72 hours of finding out, through the government's data platform — and you have to be registered on that platform before you can use the service. You must also tell the affected people without undue delay, in plain language. A second, separate clock runs for government bodies and critical national infrastructure, which owe cyber incident reports to the national cybersecurity authority under its own rules. Suppliers owe you notice without undue delay so you can meet your own deadline.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. One: sending data abroad is not only about protecting the individual — you must also assess whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom's own vital interests, and there is a government guide telling you how. Two: the standard contract must be copied word for word, and changing it is itself a breach of the law, while the overseas recipient has to accept Saudi courts. Three: leaking or publishing sensitive data to hurt someone or to profit can put a person in prison for up to two years — this is a criminal charge, not a fine. Four: your supplier contract must go beyond a normal data processing agreement and say whether the supplier is subject to foreign laws and how that affects its compliance. Five: the widely quoted rule that all government and critical infrastructure data must be hosted inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024, and quoting it today is wrong.High confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing is scheduled to commence on a fixed date in the next twelve months — the law and all its main regulations are already fully in force. The risk is the opposite kind: several switches the government already holds and can flip with no consultation. The biggest is the approved-country list, which the regulator is legally required to publish and has not; the day it appears, every transfer plan in the country needs rechecking. The second biggest is the missing localisation rule for government and critical infrastructure, which one office was handed in 2024 and has not yet written.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

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)

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	Saudi ArabiaChecked 18 August 2026	NepalChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Dormant
In one paragraph	Data can leave Saudi Arabia, but never for free. You need a purpose the law allows, a written safeguard such as the government's own standard contract, and a written risk assessment that asks whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom itself. Banks need the central bank's written permission before anything goes abroad. The privacy regulator is fully set up but publishes no fines.	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 'paperwork and you can send it' answer is true for an ordinary business. It is false for banks and finance companies, where the central bank must give written no-objection first and cloud is expected to sit inside the country. It is also unsettled for government bodies and critical national infrastructure: the old rule forcing them to host inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024 and replaced by a duty to ask a government office for a decision, and that office has published no replacement rule.	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?	Yes. The law reaches a company anywhere in the world with no office in Saudi Arabia, as long as it handles the data of people living in the Kingdom. There is no size, revenue or headcount threshold to fall below. There is no general duty to appoint a local representative, but many organisations must register on the government's data platform and some must name a data protection officer.High confidence	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?	Yes, with real paperwork. First the reason for sending it has to be on the government's short list of allowed purposes. Then you need a safeguard: the government's own standard contract, approved group-wide rules, or a certificate from a licensed body. Then you must write a risk assessment that includes whether the transfer could damage the Kingdom's vital interests. Two industries are much harder. Banks and finance companies must get the central bank's written no-objection before any data goes to an overseas supplier, and the central bank's rules say cloud services should sit inside Saudi Arabia unless it approves otherwise. For government bodies and critical national infrastructure the picture changed in 2024 and is now genuinely unclear.High confidence	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?	The model is an approved-destination list, and the list is empty. The law says data may go to a country the regulator has judged good enough, but no such list has been published, so in practice nobody uses that route. Instead almost everyone relies on the escape hatches: sign the government's word-for-word standard contract, or get approved group-wide rules for a multinational, or send to a body holding a certificate from a licensed Saudi accreditation body. On top of that you must run a written risk assessment before the data moves.High confidence	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?	The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority is the privacy regulator, and it is genuinely up and running. Its National Data Governance Platform is live and takes registrations, self-assessments, breach reports and complaints, and it has published the rulebook for the panels that hear violations and issue fines. What we could not find is a single published fine or named decision, so how hard it bites is still unknown. The financial regulator and the cybersecurity authority, by contrast, have supervised their sectors for years.Medium confidence	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?	Both directions apply, and the floor wins when they clash. The ceiling: you must destroy personal data without undue delay once the reason you collected it has gone, and also when someone asks, when they withdraw the only consent you relied on, or when you learn you processed it unlawfully. Destruction must reach backups too. The floor: your written record of processing activities must be kept for five years after the activity ends. If another law sets a keeping period, the law says keep the data until whichever is longer.High confidence	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?	The main clock is 72 hours. If personal data is breached, lost or accessed unlawfully and that could harm the people involved, you must tell the privacy regulator within 72 hours of finding out, through the government's data platform — and you have to be registered on that platform before you can use the service. You must also tell the affected people without undue delay, in plain language. A second, separate clock runs for government bodies and critical national infrastructure, which owe cyber incident reports to the national cybersecurity authority under its own rules. Suppliers owe you notice without undue delay so you can meet your own deadline.High confidence	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 things that are not in the summary. One: sending data abroad is not only about protecting the individual — you must also assess whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom's own vital interests, and there is a government guide telling you how. Two: the standard contract must be copied word for word, and changing it is itself a breach of the law, while the overseas recipient has to accept Saudi courts. Three: leaking or publishing sensitive data to hurt someone or to profit can put a person in prison for up to two years — this is a criminal charge, not a fine. Four: your supplier contract must go beyond a normal data processing agreement and say whether the supplier is subject to foreign laws and how that affects its compliance. Five: the widely quoted rule that all government and critical infrastructure data must be hosted inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024, and quoting it today is wrong.High confidence	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?	Nothing is scheduled to commence on a fixed date in the next twelve months — the law and all its main regulations are already fully in force. The risk is the opposite kind: several switches the government already holds and can flip with no consultation. The biggest is the approved-country list, which the regulator is legally required to publish and has not; the day it appears, every transfer plan in the country needs rechecking. The second biggest is the missing localisation rule for government and critical infrastructure, which one office was handed in 2024 and has not yet written.Medium confidence	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	None found.	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)