Africa has seen an unprecedented increase in data protection legislation since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU in 2016.

As of May 2022, 33 African countries have data protection laws in place, and 9 others have drafted or proposed legislation. This report provides a detailed overview of the current state and developments of data protection regulation in seven North African countries - namely Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya, Sudan and Tunisia. The study looks at regulatory approaches, basic principles and selected instruments; the research focuses on textual analysis of data protection laws including constitutional law ("de lege lata"). It finds that out of seven North African data protection laws, five closely comply with the regulatory standards of the GDPR, for example with regard to the scope of protection. However, deviations are also identified.