AI regulation in Ecuador: laws & policy (2026)

President Noboa signed Decree 461 reforming the LOSNCP General Regulations, requiring SERCOP to progressively deploy AI, machine learning, and NLP tools to detect risk patterns, flag irregularities, and generate early-alert signals in state contracting. The first binding executive order to operationalize AI across Ecuadorian government operations.

The Ministry of Telecommunications (MINTEL) announced an AI regulatory sandbox under authority granted by the LOTDA and EFIA-EC, allowing companies, universities, and public bodies to test AI applications in controlled conditions across strategic sectors. The sandbox roadmap was co-designed with UNDP technical assistance and is the primary innovation-promotion instrument of the national AI strategy.

The Superintendent of Personal Data Protection issued the General Standard for Guaranteeing Personal Data Protection in the Use of AI Systems, imposing mandatory transparency, data-minimization, and accountability obligations on any entity — domestic or foreign — that develops, trains, deploys, or provides AI systems processing Ecuadorian personal data. Article 10 grants the SPDP audit and enforcement powers over AI systems under the LOPDP sanction regime.

Ministerial Agreement MINTEL-2025-0030, published in Registro Oficial Suplemento No. 206, adopted the Strategy for the Promotion of Ethical and Responsible Development and Use of AI (EFIA-EC 2025–2029). The four-year roadmap — developed with UNESCO, IDB, AWS, and Google Cloud — covers three axes: governance, capacity and technology, and adoption and development, and constitutes Ecuador's first formal national AI policy instrument.

Resolution SCE-DS-2025-34 established Ecuador's first binding institutional AI ethics code, mandating transparency, human oversight, data privacy, traceability of automated actions, and prohibiting AI-generated decisions without human review for all SCE staff. UNESCO recognized it as one of Latin America's first comprehensive public-sector AI ethics instruments.

Assemblywoman Patricia Núñez introduced the 83-article Organic Law for the Regulation and Promotion of Artificial Intelligence, following the EU's risk-based model. The bill proposes banning mass social scoring, indiscriminate surveillance, and autonomous lethal weapons, and designates MINTEL as the primary AI regulator. As of mid-2026, it has stalled in the Education Commission without reaching a first legislative debate.

Executive Decree No. 904 published the 14-chapter General Regulation of the LOPDP in the Official Registry, operationalizing data-subject rights procedures, controller and processor obligations, and specific rules for automated processing including AI-driven profiling. The decree activated full LOPDP compliance enforcement after a transitional period.

Published in Registro Oficial Tercer Suplemento No. 245, the LOTDA established Ecuador's comprehensive digital economy framework — covering e-government, cybersecurity, digital signatures, and innovation incentives — and later provided the legislative authority for MINTEL's AI regulatory sandbox. Passed unanimously by the National Assembly as an economic-urgency bill under President Lasso.

Ecuador's first comprehensive data protection statute, published in Registro Oficial Suplemento No. 459, established rights over automated processing and algorithmic profiling, created the Superintendency of Personal Data Protection (SPDP) as the regulatory authority, and became the primary legal pillar governing all AI systems that process personal data in Ecuador. The LOPDP is modelled on the EU GDPR and imposes fines of 0.1%–1% of annual turnover for non-compliance.