Encryption Law by Country
Where strong encryption is a right, restricted, or compelled. National law and policy, mirrored per country.
Source: Global Partners Digital, World Map of Encryption, updated 2026-07-02. Full data at www.gp-digital.org/world-map-of-encryption
Encryption Law by Country (196)
General right to encryption
No known legislation or policies.
Mandatory minimum or maximum encryption strength
No known legislation or policies.
Licensing/registration requirements
No known legislation or policies.
Import/export controls
No known legislation or policies.
Other restrictions
No known legislation or policies.
Obligations on individuals to assist authorities
Section 27 of the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 allows a District Court to issue a search warrant in respect of a particular place and persons found at that place, where it is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that evidence of or relating to an offence under the Act is to be found there. Such warrants authorised any named officers to, among other things, enter the place, search it and persons there, and seize anything found which the officer reasonably believes to be evidence of or relating to an offence under the Act. Where the thing seized is or contains information or an electronic communication that cannot readily be accessed or put into intelligible form, the officer can require the disclosure of the information or electronic communication in intelligible form. Section 28, however, provides that this does not include “disclosure or enabling the seizure of unique data, such as codes, passwords, algorithms, private cryptographic keys, or other data, that may be necessary to render information or an electronic communication intelligible”. Failure to comply with a requirement under section 27 is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment of up to 12 months, a fine, or both. Section 7(1) of the Criminal Justice (Offences Relating to Information Systems) Act 2017 provides that a judge of the District Court, if “satisfied by information on oath of a member that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that evidence of, or relating to, the commission of a relevant offence is to be found in any place”, may issue a warrant for the search of that place and any persons found at that place. Under section 7(4), a person acting under authority of such a search warrant may operate any computer at the place that is being searched (or cause any such computer to be operated by another person). It further provides that they may require any other person at that place who appears to them to have lawful access to the information in any such computer (i) to give to them any password necessary to operate it and any encryption key or code necessary to unencrypt the information accessible by the computer, (ii) to enable them to examine the information accessible by the computer in a form in which the information is visible and legible, or (iii) to produce the information in a form in which it can be removed and in which it is, or can be made, visible and legible. Under sections 7(7) and 8(3), failure to comply with such a requirement is a criminal offence punishable with a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both. A copy of the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 can be found here . A copy of the Criminal Justice (Offences Relating to Information Systems) Act 2017 can be found here .
Obligations on providers to assist authorities
No known legislation or policies.
Assessment Text Area
In Ireland, officers with a search warrant are able to access require the disclosure of the information or electronic communication in intelligible form. This includes the ability to require any other person who has lawful access to the information to provide the ability to decrypt it. Failure to comply is a punishable offence.
Murphy's Law