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

Countries

ThailandChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Thailand does not make you keep personal data inside the country, but data cannot leave until you have picked and documented a legal route. The regulator never published a list of approved destination countries, so consent and written safeguards do all the work. A foreign company selling into Thailand needs a named representative living there. Getting it wrong can mean fines, double damages, and in the worst cases jail.
The catch: The permissive headline is about residency only. The burden is high and the pain is elsewhere: a person in Thailand who answers for you personally, parental consent for anyone under twenty in many cases, 90-day traffic logs that catch any business offering guest wi-fi, compensation owed even when you were not careless, and a technology-crime regime that forces banks and telecoms companies to hand customer data into a government-run exchange. Payments, government workloads and digital platforms each add their own regulator gate on top.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The privacy law reaches a company with no office in Thailand if it offers goods or services to people who are in Thailand, or if it tracks what those people do. Payment is irrelevant — a free service counts. There is no revenue or headcount floor to fall below. A foreign company caught this way must appoint, in writing, a representative who is physically in Thailand and who can be held answerable with no cap on liability.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, in most cases. Thailand does not make companies keep a copy of personal data inside the country. But data cannot simply leave: you must first have a legal route, and the regulator has never published a list of approved destination countries, so the 'this country is safe enough' route is unusable in practice. Everyone falls back on informed consent, contract necessity, approved group-wide rules, or their own written safeguards. Several industries add a second gate on top, described below.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: There is no permission slip to apply for and no banned-country list. You pick a route and document it before the data moves. The routes are: the destination is judged to have good enough protection; one of six statutory exceptions such as informed consent; group-wide rules certified by the regulator; or your own written safeguards that a person in Thailand could actually enforce. The 'good enough country' route is dead on arrival because the regulator has published no approved list, so in practice the safeguards route and consent do all the work.Medium confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Office of the Personal Data Protection Committee, usually shortened to PDPC, sits under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. It is real and staffed: it has a serving Secretary-General, it runs walk-in complaint centres in five provinces and opened another in Ubon Ratchathani on 17 August 2026, and it is executing Cabinet-level instructions on data breaches. Complaints are decided by an Expert Committee that can order you to stop, order you to fix things, and impose fines itself. Other regulators run their own lanes: the cyber-security agency for critical infrastructure, the central bank for payments, and the electronic transactions agency for digital platforms.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Thailand pushes in both directions at once. The floor: anyone who provides a computer or internet service to other people must keep traffic logs for at least 90 days, and an official can order that stretched to as much as two years. The ceiling: the privacy law makes you build a system that actually deletes personal data once your stated retention period runs out or the data is no longer needed. When the two collide, the keep-it duty wins, because the delete duty has a written carve-out for complying with law and for defending legal claims.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count three clocks, not one. First: tell the privacy regulator about a personal data breach without delay and within 72 hours of becoming aware, unless the breach carries no risk to people; if the risk to people is high you must also tell the affected individuals, with advice on what to do, without delay. Second: if you run critical information infrastructure, a significant cyber threat must be reported to the national cyber-security agency and to your own sector regulator, and silence without good reason is itself an offence. Third: if you are a bank or a telecoms operator and you suspect technology crime, you must push customer account and transaction data into a shared government-run system immediately.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the brochure. Children: Thailand needs a parent's consent for a child aged ten or under, and for older teenagers too unless the act is one the law lets a minor do alone — and a person is a minor in Thailand until twenty. Jail is on the table for misusing sensitive data. You owe compensation even if you were not careless, and a court can add up to double on top. A foreign company must put a named human in Thailand with unlimited authority. And the 90-day log rule catches ordinary businesses that just offer guest wi-fi.High confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing in the next twelve months looks like a new statute. What is moving is enforcement reach. The privacy regulator is opening walk-in centres in eight provinces during 2026 to cover all five regions, which means more complaints will actually get filed. The Cabinet decided on 11 August 2026 to require multi-factor login protection across government to stop leaked passwords turning into data breaches, and the ministry is pushing the same expectation across all twenty ministries. The bigger risk is not new law but switches the government already holds and can flip without warning.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

IndiaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: India's general privacy law is unusually relaxed about sending data abroad — it bans transfers only to countries on a government blacklist, and that blacklist is currently empty. But specific industries have hard walls: payments data, insurance records and telecom network data must stay inside India. The main law is passed but most of it only becomes enforceable in May 2027, and the regulator has no members yet.
The catch: The permissive headline is true only until you touch payments, insurance, telecom infrastructure, government cloud, public-health records or detailed mapping data. In those six areas India is one of the strictest jurisdictions in the world.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it reaches you even with no office in India. The law applies to any organisation anywhere in the world that processes Indians' data in connection with offering goods or services to people in India. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes — freely. India's approach is a blacklist: the government may name countries you cannot send data to, and as of today it has named none. Six industries are the exception and are covered below.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Nothing to sign, no government approval, no standard contract. Unlike Europe, India requires no paperwork to send personal data abroad under the general law — the only question is whether the destination is on the blacklist, and nothing is. Sector rules override this completely.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: On paper, the Data Protection Board of India. In practice, nobody yet — the Board legally exists but as of August 2026 has no chairperson and no members. The government advertised the five posts in May 2026 and re-advertised in June, and they were still vacant in August. Sector regulators, by contrast, are fully active: the central bank, the insurance and securities regulators, the telecom department and the national cyber agency all enforce today.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is both a floor and a ceiling. From May 2027 every organisation must keep processing logs for at least one year. Tax records run six years, company books eight, and security logs 180 days. In the other direction, large consumer platforms must delete a user's data three years after they last engaged — with 48 hours' warning to the user first.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Two clocks, and this trips up almost everyone. You have SIX HOURS to report a cyber incident to India's national cyber agency — one of the shortest deadlines in the world. Separately, from May 2027, you must tell the privacy regulator and affected individuals without delay, then file a detailed report within 72 hours.High confidence
What's the trap?: Four things that catch people out. (1) A child is anyone under 18 — there is no lower age of digital consent as there is in Europe, and targeted advertising to under-18s is banned outright. (2) A consent manager must be an Indian company with about $2.3m of net worth, so a foreign entity cannot be one. (3) If designated a 'significant' organisation you must have a data protection officer physically based in India who answers to the board. (4) The general law expressly preserves stricter sector rules, so its liberal transfer regime gives you nothing if you touch payments, insurance or telecom.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three dates matter. 13 November 2026: consent managers must register. 13 May 2027: the whole law becomes enforceable, and the government has publicly refused to extend it or exempt startups. At some point before then, the Board should get its members — at which point enforcement switches on.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Payments — Storage of Payment System Data
Telecoms — Telecommunications (Authorisation) Rules, 2026
Insurance — IRDAI (Maintenance of Information by Regulated Entities and Sharing of Information by the Authority) Regulations, 2025
Securities — Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework, control PR.DS.S2
All industries — Directions under section 70B(6) of the Information Technology Act, 2000

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	ThailandChecked 18 August 2026	IndiaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Thailand does not make you keep personal data inside the country, but data cannot leave until you have picked and documented a legal route. The regulator never published a list of approved destination countries, so consent and written safeguards do all the work. A foreign company selling into Thailand needs a named representative living there. Getting it wrong can mean fines, double damages, and in the worst cases jail.	India's general privacy law is unusually relaxed about sending data abroad — it bans transfers only to countries on a government blacklist, and that blacklist is currently empty. But specific industries have hard walls: payments data, insurance records and telecom network data must stay inside India. The main law is passed but most of it only becomes enforceable in May 2027, and the regulator has no members yet.
The catch	The permissive headline is about residency only. The burden is high and the pain is elsewhere: a person in Thailand who answers for you personally, parental consent for anyone under twenty in many cases, 90-day traffic logs that catch any business offering guest wi-fi, compensation owed even when you were not careless, and a technology-crime regime that forces banks and telecoms companies to hand customer data into a government-run exchange. Payments, government workloads and digital platforms each add their own regulator gate on top.	The permissive headline is true only until you touch payments, insurance, telecom infrastructure, government cloud, public-health records or detailed mapping data. In those six areas India is one of the strictest jurisdictions in the world.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. The privacy law reaches a company with no office in Thailand if it offers goods or services to people who are in Thailand, or if it tracks what those people do. Payment is irrelevant — a free service counts. There is no revenue or headcount floor to fall below. A foreign company caught this way must appoint, in writing, a representative who is physically in Thailand and who can be held answerable with no cap on liability.High confidence	Yes, it reaches you even with no office in India. The law applies to any organisation anywhere in the world that processes Indians' data in connection with offering goods or services to people in India. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	Yes, in most cases. Thailand does not make companies keep a copy of personal data inside the country. But data cannot simply leave: you must first have a legal route, and the regulator has never published a list of approved destination countries, so the 'this country is safe enough' route is unusable in practice. Everyone falls back on informed consent, contract necessity, approved group-wide rules, or their own written safeguards. Several industries add a second gate on top, described below.High confidence	In general, yes — freely. India's approach is a blacklist: the government may name countries you cannot send data to, and as of today it has named none. Six industries are the exception and are covered below.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	There is no permission slip to apply for and no banned-country list. You pick a route and document it before the data moves. The routes are: the destination is judged to have good enough protection; one of six statutory exceptions such as informed consent; group-wide rules certified by the regulator; or your own written safeguards that a person in Thailand could actually enforce. The 'good enough country' route is dead on arrival because the regulator has published no approved list, so in practice the safeguards route and consent do all the work.Medium confidence	Nothing to sign, no government approval, no standard contract. Unlike Europe, India requires no paperwork to send personal data abroad under the general law — the only question is whether the destination is on the blacklist, and nothing is. Sector rules override this completely.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	The Office of the Personal Data Protection Committee, usually shortened to PDPC, sits under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. It is real and staffed: it has a serving Secretary-General, it runs walk-in complaint centres in five provinces and opened another in Ubon Ratchathani on 17 August 2026, and it is executing Cabinet-level instructions on data breaches. Complaints are decided by an Expert Committee that can order you to stop, order you to fix things, and impose fines itself. Other regulators run their own lanes: the cyber-security agency for critical infrastructure, the central bank for payments, and the electronic transactions agency for digital platforms.Medium confidence	On paper, the Data Protection Board of India. In practice, nobody yet — the Board legally exists but as of August 2026 has no chairperson and no members. The government advertised the five posts in May 2026 and re-advertised in June, and they were still vacant in August. Sector regulators, by contrast, are fully active: the central bank, the insurance and securities regulators, the telecom department and the national cyber agency all enforce today.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	Thailand pushes in both directions at once. The floor: anyone who provides a computer or internet service to other people must keep traffic logs for at least 90 days, and an official can order that stretched to as much as two years. The ceiling: the privacy law makes you build a system that actually deletes personal data once your stated retention period runs out or the data is no longer needed. When the two collide, the keep-it duty wins, because the delete duty has a written carve-out for complying with law and for defending legal claims.High confidence	There is both a floor and a ceiling. From May 2027 every organisation must keep processing logs for at least one year. Tax records run six years, company books eight, and security logs 180 days. In the other direction, large consumer platforms must delete a user's data three years after they last engaged — with 48 hours' warning to the user first.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count three clocks, not one. First: tell the privacy regulator about a personal data breach without delay and within 72 hours of becoming aware, unless the breach carries no risk to people; if the risk to people is high you must also tell the affected individuals, with advice on what to do, without delay. Second: if you run critical information infrastructure, a significant cyber threat must be reported to the national cyber-security agency and to your own sector regulator, and silence without good reason is itself an offence. Third: if you are a bank or a telecoms operator and you suspect technology crime, you must push customer account and transaction data into a shared government-run system immediately.High confidence	Two clocks, and this trips up almost everyone. You have SIX HOURS to report a cyber incident to India's national cyber agency — one of the shortest deadlines in the world. Separately, from May 2027, you must tell the privacy regulator and affected individuals without delay, then file a detailed report within 72 hours.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five things that are not in the brochure. Children: Thailand needs a parent's consent for a child aged ten or under, and for older teenagers too unless the act is one the law lets a minor do alone — and a person is a minor in Thailand until twenty. Jail is on the table for misusing sensitive data. You owe compensation even if you were not careless, and a court can add up to double on top. A foreign company must put a named human in Thailand with unlimited authority. And the 90-day log rule catches ordinary businesses that just offer guest wi-fi.High confidence	Four things that catch people out. (1) A child is anyone under 18 — there is no lower age of digital consent as there is in Europe, and targeted advertising to under-18s is banned outright. (2) A consent manager must be an Indian company with about $2.3m of net worth, so a foreign entity cannot be one. (3) If designated a 'significant' organisation you must have a data protection officer physically based in India who answers to the board. (4) The general law expressly preserves stricter sector rules, so its liberal transfer regime gives you nothing if you touch payments, insurance or telecom.High confidence
What's about to change?	Nothing in the next twelve months looks like a new statute. What is moving is enforcement reach. The privacy regulator is opening walk-in centres in eight provinces during 2026 to cover all five regions, which means more complaints will actually get filed. The Cabinet decided on 11 August 2026 to require multi-factor login protection across government to stop leaked passwords turning into data breaches, and the ministry is pushing the same expectation across all twenty ministries. The bigger risk is not new law but switches the government already holds and can flip without warning.Medium confidence	Three dates matter. 13 November 2026: consent managers must register. 13 May 2027: the whole law becomes enforceable, and the government has publicly refused to extend it or exempt startups. At some point before then, the Board should get its members — at which point enforcement switches on.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	None found.	Payments — Storage of Payment System Data Telecoms — Telecommunications (Authorisation) Rules, 2026 Insurance — IRDAI (Maintenance of Information by Regulated Entities and Sharing of Information by the Authority) Regulations, 2025 Securities — Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework, control PR.DS.S2 All industries — Directions under section 70B(6) of the Information Technology Act, 2000