2020 Ends a Decade of 62 New Data Privacy Laws

Abstract

The decade 2010-2019 has seen 62 new countries enacting data privacy laws, more than in any previous decade, giving a total of 142 countries with such laws by the end of 2019.

This paper provides a graph illustrating that, if the current trajectory of enactment of new data privacy laws continues, then by the end of the 2020s there will be over 200 countries (including self-governing territories) with data privacy laws. What started as a novelty in one German State (Hesse) in 1970 will have covered the globe with its influence in sixty years.

Since publication of the most recent Global Tables of Data Privacy Laws in January 2019 (see https://ssrn.com/abstract=3380794) which included 132 countries with such laws, a further ten laws have been enacted or located. They include six from Africa, three from Central Asia, and one from the Caribbean, now numbered #133 to #142. The extent of apparent GDPR influences is indicated.

Brief descriptions of each of these ten laws are given in the paper. With three new laws, all Central Asian countries except Mongolia now have data privacy laws, because Kazakhstan and Kyrzygstan already have such laws. Enactments in six more African countries brings the total number with data privacy laws to 31 of the 55 African Union members.

Keywords: data protection, privacy, GDPR, Africa, Caribbean, Central Asia, legislation