Before you read
This site is NOT legal advice, and using it creates no lawyer and client relationship. It is a set of findings, checked against published sources and dated, that may help software developers and other individuals. For a decision that matters, ask a qualified lawyer in the country concerned.
How this site is made
What this is
A plain-language reference to digital privacy law around the world, for software developers and anyone else who wants to understand it.
NOT legal advice
These are findings. They are NOT legal advice, and reading them does not make anyone your lawyer. For a decision that matters, ask a qualified lawyer in the country concerned.
How it is checked
Each claim is cited to the source it comes from, official text wherever one can be reached, and each page shows the date its sources were last checked. Laws change: treat an old date as a reason to check.
Source limits
Where an official source could not be reached, the section says so in a source note. These pages have one:
- Brazil
- Chile
- United States
- Canada: Quebec
- Australia
- India
- China
- Japan
- South Korea
- Budapest Convention
- Convention 108+
Coverage
Covered today: the European Union and EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Brazil, Chile, the United States (federal rules and California), Canada (federal law), Australia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, and two Council of Europe treaties. Every country with a comprehensive privacy law is planned; they are added one at a time, and appear on the country list only once researched. Countries are not left out because their law matters less.
Licences
The text of this site is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0: anyone may copy, adapt or republish it, for any purpose, without asking or giving credit. The site’s code is under AGPL-3.0. The laws quoted remain their publishers’ texts.
The map comes from Natural Earth data, which is in the public domain.