Compliance / LATAM & Middle East
Compliance frameworkLGPD, Gulf & Latin American Data Laws
Latin American and Gulf regimes have converged on GDPR-shaped principles while keeping their own retention arithmetic. The obligations are recognisable; the periods, the regulators and the residency expectations are not, and they are still moving.
Applies to: Organisations processing personal data in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider Gulf, and — from December 2026 — Chile. Financial entities additionally answer to their sector regulator, such as Brazil's BCB and CVM or the Saudi Central Bank.
At a glance
| Regulations | LGPD; Saudi PDPL; UAE PDPL/DIFC/ADGM |
|---|---|
| Brazil financial floor | Up to 10 years (BCB AML records) |
| Saudi retention | Processing period + 5 years |
| Chile Law 21.719 | In force 1 December 2026 |
What LATAM & Middle East requires
Brazil: LGPD, over a longer financial floor
The LGPD sets the general baseline, with Article 16 allowing retention beyond the original purpose where a legal or regulatory obligation requires it. Underneath sit longer sectoral periods: documents filed with the CVM are commonly held five years for tax purposes and ten for civil purposes, and the Banco Central do Brasil extended AML-related record retention to ten years.
Saudi Arabia: PDPL plus SAMA
The PDPL requires records of processing activities covering purposes, categories, recipients, transfers, retention periods and security measures, retained for the duration of processing plus five years from completion of the activity. Financial institutions additionally follow the Saudi Central Bank's own record-keeping and retention rules.
UAE: three parallel regimes
A federal PDPL for mainland entities, and separate frameworks for the DIFC (Data Protection Law No. 5 of 2020, enforceable since October 2020) and the ADGM. They share GDPR's core principles — including storage limitation with defined retention and a deletion or anonymisation routine — but which one applies depends on where the entity is licensed.
Still arriving: Chile, and the wider Gulf
Chile's Law 21.719 replaces its 1999 framework, creates a dedicated data protection authority and requires an up-to-date record of processing activities; it enters into force on 1 December 2026. Qatar legislated first in the GCC with Law No. 13 of 2016, and Bahrain's PDPL has been in force since August 2019.
How Grotabyte helps with LATAM & Middle East
Frequently asked questions
Does the LGPD limit how long we can keep communications?
It requires a purpose and a defined period, but Article 16 expressly permits retention where a legal or regulatory obligation requires it. For a Brazilian financial institution the operative figure is usually the sectoral one — up to ten years for AML-related records under Banco Central rules — rather than the general privacy baseline.
Which UAE regime applies to us?
It depends where the entity is licensed. Mainland entities fall under the federal PDPL; entities licensed in the DIFC fall under DIFC Law No. 5 of 2020; ADGM entities under the ADGM framework. Groups operating across all three commonly set retention to the strictest of them and apply it uniformly, which is how Grotabyte's longest-applicable-rule behaviour is designed to work.
Is Chile's new law in force yet?
Not at the time of writing. Law 21.719 was published in December 2024 and enters into force on 1 December 2026, replacing the 1999 framework and creating a dedicated authority. Organisations preparing for it generally start with the record of processing activities, since that has to be current from the outset.
Can Grotabyte keep data resident in-country?
Yes. The same build deploys on-premise against your own storage, into cloud storage you nominate, or operated by us. Each customer's archive is storage dedicated to them, and an on-premise deployment has no outbound dependency in order to search or produce.
Meet LATAM & Middle East with confidence
See how Grotabyte captures, preserves, and produces your records to satisfy LATAM & Middle East and the other regulations that govern your organization.