Saudi Arabia Postpones Its GDPR for One Year

Saudi Arabia's version of the EU's GDPR, called locally the Personal Data Protection Law, PDPL, was delayed for one year the day before the law was to take effect. The PDPL generally follows the GDPR but is a little stricter since it does not permit the unlicensed transfer of personal identifying information (PII) outside of the country except in emergencies. It is surprising that a law like this would be delayed one day before it was to take effect.

The announcement was made yesterday on Twitter, increasingly the preferred platform for official government press releases.