Vietnam is entering its most profound phase of legal transformation in the field of data: regulatory frameworks governing personal data protection, cybersecurity, data and digital technology are being introduced in rapid succession, with increasingly severe sanctions and an extraterritorial scope extending even to businesses with no presence in Vietnam. For most businesses, the question is no longer “whether compliance is required”, but rather “how to comply without paralysing business operations”. Answering that second question through workable operational solutions is at the core of HM&P’s practice in this field.
This is one of HM&P’s most distinctly recognised practices: the firm has been ranked by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific in the field of Data Protection in Vietnam, and our lawyers have been listed in the OneTrust DataGuidance Data Privacy Experts Directory. We advise multinational corporations, digital platforms, financial institutions, manufacturing enterprises and technology companies on the entire data lifecycle, from collection, processing and sharing to cross-border transfers, together with cybersecurity obligations and emerging legal issues arising from the use of AI.
Our Approach
Our principle is that compliance must support business, not obstruct it. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all template, we begin with the company’s actual data flows: what data is involved, where it is collected from, where it is processed, with whom it is shared, and through which channels it leaves Vietnam. We then design a compliance framework aligned with that operating model: correctly identifying the legal role of each party in the processing chain, preparing the impact assessment dossiers required by law, and developing a system of policies that operational teams can implement in their day-to-day activities, rather than a set of documents that exists only on paper.
For multinational corporations, the greatest challenge is often one of harmonisation: how to ensure that a global compliance framework, typically built on the GDPR, satisfies the specific requirements of Vietnamese law without requiring two parallel systems to be operated. We regularly work with clients’ global privacy teams and regional DPOs, communicate in the same technical language, and identify precisely where Vietnamese law requires a different approach, from consent mechanisms and sensitive data to cross-border data transfer dossiers.
When incidents occur, such as data breaches, cyberattacks or requests from regulatory authorities, we support clients during the critical first hours by assessing notification obligations, managing legal liability, coordinating with technical incident response and communications teams, and representing clients before competent authorities throughout the response process.
In relation to AI, we advise on both sides of the technological wave: businesses deploying AI in their operations, including the legal basis for training data, automated decision-making and liability for system outputs; and businesses developing AI products that require a legal structure for their business models within a rapidly evolving regulatory framework that we closely monitor from the drafting stage.
Scope of Services
- Development, review and implementation of personal data protection compliance frameworks under Vietnamese law;
- Personal data processing impact assessment dossiers and outbound personal data transfer impact assessment dossiers;
- Identification of legal roles and responsibilities, including data controllers, data processors, data controller-processors and third parties;
- Consent mechanisms, processing of sensitive data, children’s data and circumstances in which processing may be carried out without consent;
- Data subject rights and procedures for receiving and handling privacy rights requests;
- Privacy policies, data processing notices, internal procedures and organisational structures for data protection, including DPO arrangements;
- Harmonisation of global compliance frameworks, including the GDPR and regional standards, with the specific requirements of Vietnamese law;
- Cybersecurity obligations, information system protection and data localisation requirements in Vietnam;
- Incident response, including data breaches, cyberattacks, notification obligations and engagement with regulatory authorities;
- Data processing agreements, data sharing arrangements and data provisions in technology and cloud service agreements;
- Legal risks associated with AI, including training data, automated decision-making, product liability and enterprise AI governance;
- Data-related advice in M&A transactions and due diligence on target companies’ data compliance.
