Data protection & privacy laws in Samoa (2026)

UNCTAD's 2024 gap analysis of 15 Pacific SIDS explicitly found that none of them, including Samoa, has a comprehensive data-protection law in force, identifying this as a key gap undermining digital-economy participation.

The National Digital Identification Act 2024 (No. 3 of 2024), enacted by the Legislative Assembly and published by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics, establishes a national digital ID system and includes Part 7 provisions on data storage, security, integrity, confidentiality, and mandatory breach notification for the Registrar-General and relying parties — but only within the digital ID context.

The Information and Communications Technology Act 2008 governs ICT infrastructure with incidental privacy-adjacent provisions, and the Crimes Act 2013 addresses cybercrime offences including unauthorised access to computer systems. Neither constitutes sector-spanning data-protection legislation.

In May 2024 Samoa's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology issued an Information Security Policy aligned with ISO/IEC 27001, establishing standards for protecting government information systems; it is an administrative/policy instrument, not primary legislation conferring individual rights.

No official Samoan government source confirms an operational, independent data-protection authority or Privacy Commissioner. The UNCTAD and Pacific Islands Forum reports identify the absence of such an authority as part of the broader cyberlaw gap in Pacific SIDS.

UNCTAD and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat have called on Pacific SIDS, including Samoa, to enact comprehensive data-protection, cybersecurity, and consumer-rights laws to support digital-economy growth. Samoa is relatively advanced among Pacific peers due to its digital-ID and e-commerce legislation, but a standalone privacy law remains absent.