It was only in April 2023 that Vietnam enacted the most recent iteration of its data privacy protections, which have been gradually strengthening since 2006, the Decree Protection of Personal Data (Decree No. 13/2023/ND-CP),(1) made under the authority of a number of other laws. Now the government is proposing that the legislature should enact a data protection law in its own right, the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL). The intention is that it will be presented to the National Assembly in 2024, enacted mid-2025, and enter into force from the start of 2026. It has been a 20-year journey for Vietnam’s data protections to approach global standards, and it still has some distance to go, as significant differences remain.