Despite the Covid pandemic, countries across the globe have continued to enact data privacy laws. At the start of 2021, 145 countries had done so,(1) but in the year since then a further 12 countries have enacted such laws, giving a total of 157 by mid-March 2022. As has become familiar, most of these laws are influenced substantially by the EU’s GDPR, but with many variations in such implementations. The table below provides a summary, followed by a brief analysis of key features and sources for each law. Trends which may be emerging from these new laws are noted.

Twelve new national laws

The 12 new laws come from most regions of the globe: Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Mid-East, plus the last state in Europe. Brief details follow of the laws, and where more details can be found.