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

Countries

SenegalChecked 19 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: MediumEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Senegal has had a personal data protection law since 2008 and a regulator that genuinely works. Data may go abroad, but only to a country that protects it well enough, and the regulator has to be told. Banks are the real trap: their data must stay reachable inside the West African monetary union. A cybersecurity bill now in parliament would force public bodies to host data at home.
The catch: The general answer, 'yes with paperwork', stops being true the moment you touch banking or credit reporting. Banks and finance companies must keep their data available inside the West African monetary union, and their servers or at least their backup servers must sit there. Public bodies are heading the same way under a bill that passed committee on 13 August 2026.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it can reach a company with no office in Senegal. The law applies to anyone handling personal data using equipment sited in Senegal, wherever the company itself is based. A company based abroad that uses equipment here must name a representative who is established in Senegal. There is no company size or revenue level below which you escape.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general yes, with paperwork. Data may be sent abroad if the receiving country gives people a good enough level of protection, and the move has to be notified to the regulator. If the destination does not measure up, you need the regulator's permission. Two areas are much tighter than the headline: banking and credit reporting, where the data has to stay reachable inside the West African monetary union.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destinations list that was never published. You have to judge for yourself whether the receiving country protects data well enough, and tell the regulator before the data moves. If the country does not measure up, you can still ask the regulator to approve the transfer because of the safeguards you have built. Narrow exceptions cover one-off transfers, clear consent, contracts and emergencies.Medium confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Commission for the Protection of Personal Data, known in Senegal by its French initials CDP, is the main regulator. It is real and working. It publishes activity figures every three months, runs surprise inspections, holds hearings, and orders companies to take down cameras. In the first three months of 2026 it handled 317 files and 9 complaints. What it almost never does is hand out cash fines.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is no single national table of retention periods. The ceiling comes from the data protection law: keep personal data only as long as you need it for the purpose you collected it for, then delete it. The main floors come from elsewhere. Business and accounting records must be kept for ten years under the regional business law treaty, and telecom operators may hold technical data for up to two years.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There is no general duty to report a data breach in Senegal. We checked on 19 August 2026 and found no deadline, in hours or otherwise, in the 2008 data protection law, either to the regulator or to the people affected. Banks must tell their supervisor about serious problems, but no published deadline in hours was found. Two changes are coming that would add reporting duties.Medium confidence
What's the trap?: The traps in Senegal are not about fines, they are about permission slips and cameras. Almost every use of personal data has to be filed with the regulator before you start, and some uses need written permission first. The regulator turns up unannounced. And data offences sit in the criminal code, so a person can be prosecuted, not just a company told off.Medium confidence
What's about to change?: One big thing is close. A bill on protecting critical information infrastructure and digital security was approved by the government on 17 June 2026 and passed a parliamentary committee on 13 August 2026. It still needs a vote in the full chamber, so it is not law. It would create a national cybersecurity authority and make local hosting of public sector data compulsory.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Banking — Circulaire n° 04-2017/CB/C relative à la gestion des risques dans les établissements de crédit et compagnies financières de l'UMOA
Finance — Instruction n° 009-06-2015 relative aux dispositifs de sécurité des systèmes d'information des bureaux d'information sur le crédit
Government — Projet de loi sur la protection des infrastructures d'information critiques et la sécurité numérique

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	SenegalChecked 19 August 2026	AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: Medium Enforcement: Active	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Senegal has had a personal data protection law since 2008 and a regulator that genuinely works. Data may go abroad, but only to a country that protects it well enough, and the regulator has to be told. Banks are the real trap: their data must stay reachable inside the West African monetary union. A cybersecurity bill now in parliament would force public bodies to host data at home.	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 general answer, 'yes with paperwork', stops being true the moment you touch banking or credit reporting. Banks and finance companies must keep their data available inside the West African monetary union, and their servers or at least their backup servers must sit there. Public bodies are heading the same way under a bill that passed committee on 13 August 2026.	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 Senegal. The law applies to anyone handling personal data using equipment sited in Senegal, wherever the company itself is based. A company based abroad that uses equipment here must name a representative who is established in Senegal. There is no company size or revenue level below which you escape.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?	In general yes, with paperwork. Data may be sent abroad if the receiving country gives people a good enough level of protection, and the move has to be notified to the regulator. If the destination does not measure up, you need the regulator's permission. Two areas are much tighter than the headline: banking and credit reporting, where the data has to stay reachable inside the West African monetary union.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?	The model is an approved-destinations list that was never published. You have to judge for yourself whether the receiving country protects data well enough, and tell the regulator before the data moves. If the country does not measure up, you can still ask the regulator to approve the transfer because of the safeguards you have built. Narrow exceptions cover one-off transfers, clear consent, contracts and emergencies.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 Commission for the Protection of Personal Data, known in Senegal by its French initials CDP, is the main regulator. It is real and working. It publishes activity figures every three months, runs surprise inspections, holds hearings, and orders companies to take down cameras. In the first three months of 2026 it handled 317 files and 9 complaints. What it almost never does is hand out cash fines.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 single national table of retention periods. The ceiling comes from the data protection law: keep personal data only as long as you need it for the purpose you collected it for, then delete it. The main floors come from elsewhere. Business and accounting records must be kept for ten years under the regional business law treaty, and telecom operators may hold technical data for up to two years.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?	There is no general duty to report a data breach in Senegal. We checked on 19 August 2026 and found no deadline, in hours or otherwise, in the 2008 data protection law, either to the regulator or to the people affected. Banks must tell their supervisor about serious problems, but no published deadline in hours was found. Two changes are coming that would add reporting duties.Medium 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?	The traps in Senegal are not about fines, they are about permission slips and cameras. Almost every use of personal data has to be filed with the regulator before you start, and some uses need written permission first. The regulator turns up unannounced. And data offences sit in the criminal code, so a person can be prosecuted, not just a company told off.Medium 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?	One big thing is close. A bill on protecting critical information infrastructure and digital security was approved by the government on 17 June 2026 and passed a parliamentary committee on 13 August 2026. It still needs a vote in the full chamber, so it is not law. It would create a national cybersecurity authority and make local hosting of public sector data compulsory.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	Banking — Circulaire n° 04-2017/CB/C relative à la gestion des risques dans les établissements de crédit et compagnies financières de l'UMOA Finance — Instruction n° 009-06-2015 relative aux dispositifs de sécurité des systèmes d'information des bureaux d'information sur le crédit Government — Projet de loi sur la protection des infrastructures d'information critiques et la sécurité numérique	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