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

Countries

UruguayChecked 19 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Uruguay copies the European model. Personal data may leave the country, but only to a destination the regulator has approved, or with consent, protective contract clauses or the regulator's permission. Every database must be registered before you use it. The regulator is small but real: it publishes decisions most months. Fines are capped low.
The catch: The general answer stops being true in two places. Banks, insurers, brokers, credit companies and payment firms supervised by the central bank must ask that bank for express permission before any data is processed abroad, and must keep a backup copy inside Uruguay unless they build a control room in Uruguay instead. Central government bodies must host their systems in data centres on Uruguayan soil unless the digital government agency grants an exception.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it reaches you with no office in Uruguay. The law applies to any organisation that offers goods or services to people in Uruguay, that studies how they behave, or that uses equipment located in Uruguay, such as a network, a server or a data centre. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below. If your only connection is data passing through Uruguay on its way somewhere else, you are excused from registering your databases, but only if you name a representative who lives in Uruguay.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general yes, but with paperwork. Uruguay bans sending personal data to a country that does not protect it well enough, and keeps a published list of the countries and schemes that do. Anywhere else needs consent, protective contract clauses, or the regulator's permission. Two areas are far harder: financial firms supervised by the central bank, and central government bodies.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destinations list, and the list is full, not empty. If the destination is on it, you send the data with no extra permission, though you still register the database. If it is not, you need the person's clear consent, or a contract with protective clauses, or written permission from the regulator. Since June 2026 the regulator recommends the Council of Europe's model contract clauses as the safest wording.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Personal Data Regulation and Control Unit, which sits inside the digital government agency. It is genuinely working: it is staffed, it publishes numbered decisions most months, it rules on complaints against private companies and even against the state bank, and it approves transfers abroad one by one. Its biggest fine is capped at about three point three million Uruguayan pesos, roughly eighty thousand US dollars. Cyber incidents go to a separate team in the same agency, and financial firms answer to the central bank as well.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Two forces pull in opposite directions. Company account books must be kept for twenty years, financial paperwork for ten, anti-money-laundering customer records for five years after the relationship ends, and security logs for at least twelve months. Pulling the other way, records of unpaid commercial debts about a person must come off a database after five years, extendable once by another five, and a debt that has been paid off may stay for at most five years and cannot be renewed.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count two clocks. If personal data is exposed, you have seventy-two hours from finding out to tell the privacy regulator, and you must also tell the people affected if the harm to them is serious. Separately, if you are a public body or a private operator of a critical service, you have twenty-four hours from finding out to report a cyber incident to the national cyber team. A bank hit by ransomware is running both clocks at once, plus its own reporting duty to the central bank.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that cost people their weekend in Uruguay. Every database must be registered with the regulator, and that filing is the single most common thing foreign companies miss. Financial firms need two separate permissions to process data abroad, not one. The threshold for appointing a data protection officer is low. Being a United States company is not enough to be on the approved list. And selling software to a government ministry can drag you into a hosting rule you never priced in.High confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing binding is scheduled to land in the next twelve months. Artificial intelligence rules are being built up step by step: the government agency was ordered to write a national data and artificial intelligence strategy and report to parliament with recommendations for a law, a governance decree followed in December 2025, and controlled testing spaces opened in May 2026 with the privacy regulator involved. A bill to regulate online betting was promised for 2026 but is not law. The bigger risk is the switches the government already holds.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Finance — Recopilacion de Normas de Regulacion y Control del Sistema Financiero, articulos 35.1.1, 35.3, 492 y 497
Insurance — Recopilacion de Normas de Seguros y Reaseguros, articulos 16.1.1, 16.1.2, 16.3, 120.1 y 120.3
Government — Decreto N. 92/014, articulo 3 (centros de datos seguros) y articulo 5 (fiscalizacion y excepciones)

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	UruguayChecked 19 August 2026	AlgeriaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up
In one paragraph	Uruguay copies the European model. Personal data may leave the country, but only to a destination the regulator has approved, or with consent, protective contract clauses or the regulator's permission. Every database must be registered before you use it. The regulator is small but real: it publishes decisions most months. Fines are capped low.	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 stops being true in two places. Banks, insurers, brokers, credit companies and payment firms supervised by the central bank must ask that bank for express permission before any data is processed abroad, and must keep a backup copy inside Uruguay unless they build a control room in Uruguay instead. Central government bodies must host their systems in data centres on Uruguayan soil unless the digital government agency grants an exception.	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 reaches you with no office in Uruguay. The law applies to any organisation that offers goods or services to people in Uruguay, that studies how they behave, or that uses equipment located in Uruguay, such as a network, a server or a data centre. There is no size or revenue threshold to fall below. If your only connection is data passing through Uruguay on its way somewhere else, you are excused from registering your databases, but only if you name a representative who lives in Uruguay.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, but with paperwork. Uruguay bans sending personal data to a country that does not protect it well enough, and keeps a published list of the countries and schemes that do. Anywhere else needs consent, protective contract clauses, or the regulator's permission. Two areas are far harder: financial firms supervised by the central bank, and central government bodies.High 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, and the list is full, not empty. If the destination is on it, you send the data with no extra permission, though you still register the database. If it is not, you need the person's clear consent, or a contract with protective clauses, or written permission from the regulator. Since June 2026 the regulator recommends the Council of Europe's model contract clauses as the safest wording.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 Personal Data Regulation and Control Unit, which sits inside the digital government agency. It is genuinely working: it is staffed, it publishes numbered decisions most months, it rules on complaints against private companies and even against the state bank, and it approves transfers abroad one by one. Its biggest fine is capped at about three point three million Uruguayan pesos, roughly eighty thousand US dollars. Cyber incidents go to a separate team in the same agency, and financial firms answer to the central bank as well.High 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?	Two forces pull in opposite directions. Company account books must be kept for twenty years, financial paperwork for ten, anti-money-laundering customer records for five years after the relationship ends, and security logs for at least twelve months. Pulling the other way, records of unpaid commercial debts about a person must come off a database after five years, extendable once by another five, and a debt that has been paid off may stay for at most five years and cannot be renewed.High 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?	Count two clocks. If personal data is exposed, you have seventy-two hours from finding out to tell the privacy regulator, and you must also tell the people affected if the harm to them is serious. Separately, if you are a public body or a private operator of a critical service, you have twenty-four hours from finding out to report a cyber incident to the national cyber team. A bank hit by ransomware is running both clocks at once, plus its own reporting duty to the central bank.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 cost people their weekend in Uruguay. Every database must be registered with the regulator, and that filing is the single most common thing foreign companies miss. Financial firms need two separate permissions to process data abroad, not one. The threshold for appointing a data protection officer is low. Being a United States company is not enough to be on the approved list. And selling software to a government ministry can drag you into a hosting rule you never priced in.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 binding is scheduled to land in the next twelve months. Artificial intelligence rules are being built up step by step: the government agency was ordered to write a national data and artificial intelligence strategy and report to parliament with recommendations for a law, a governance decree followed in December 2025, and controlled testing spaces opened in May 2026 with the privacy regulator involved. A bill to regulate online betting was promised for 2026 but is not law. The bigger risk is the switches the government already holds.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	Finance — Recopilacion de Normas de Regulacion y Control del Sistema Financiero, articulos 35.1.1, 35.3, 492 y 497 Insurance — Recopilacion de Normas de Seguros y Reaseguros, articulos 16.1.1, 16.1.2, 16.3, 120.1 y 120.3 Government — Decreto N. 92/014, articulo 3 (centros de datos seguros) y articulo 5 (fiscalizacion y excepciones)	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