Ecuador Clarified That Data Transfers Carry Two Layers of Compliance
Ecuador’s data protection authority issued Resolution SPDP-SPD-2025-0024-R on 25 July 2025. The resolution clarifies that a transfer or communication of personal data must satisfy the law’s general processing duties as well as the additional rules that apply specifically to domestic or international transfers.
That distinction sounds technical, but it corrects a common compliance mistake. Organisations sometimes treat a transfer mechanism as if it authorises everything around the transfer. It does not. A contractual clause, adequacy basis or other transfer route cannot repair personal data that was collected without a valid basis, retained too long or disclosed for an incompatible purpose.
The resolution applies across Ecuador’s data protection system to actors carrying out transfers or communications. It therefore matters to controllers, processors, service providers and group companies moving personal data between organisations or across borders.
A lawful transfer begins before data moves
The first layer is the general regime under Ecuador’s Organic Law on Personal Data Protection and its regulation. The organisation must establish the role of each party, purpose, legal basis, transparency, data quality, security and respect for individual rights.
If those elements are missing, the problem exists even if the recipient is in Ecuador. Transfer analysis should therefore start with the processing activity, not with the destination country.
The second layer addresses the movement itself
Once the underlying processing is justified, the organisation must apply the rules for the relevant transfer or communication. International movement can require an available legal route and safeguards appropriate to the destination, recipient and risk. Domestic disclosures still require purpose, role and access analysis.
This two-layer model prevents a misleading binary answer. A transfer is not compliant merely because one document has been signed. The arrangement, data flow and practical controls must work together.
Cloud and group structures need real data-flow maps
A service may be contracted locally while support, logging, backups or administration occurs elsewhere. A corporate group may describe information as internal even though separate legal entities receive it. These arrangements can contain several transfers, sub-processors and purposes.
Contract inventories alone will not reveal that picture. Organisations need data-flow maps showing source, destination, purpose, system, recipient, access location and onward movement. Procurement and engineering changes should update the map before a new route goes live.
Security follows the data
Transfer governance must address how information is protected in transit, at rest and during remote access. It should also define incident notification, audit evidence, deletion, return and restrictions on onward disclosure.
The practical question is whether the exporter can still meet its obligations after the data leaves its direct environment. If the recipient cannot support rights requests, deletion or incident investigation, the paper mechanism is weaker than it appears.
What organisations should do
- Inventory domestic and international disclosures, including remote access, support and backups.
- Confirm the purpose, legal basis, transparency and party roles for the underlying processing.
- Identify and document the specific route and safeguards for each transfer.
- Review onward transfers, sub-processors, incident terms and deletion capabilities.
- Connect transfer review to procurement, architecture and change management.
A mechanism is only one part of compliance
Resolution 0024 makes the architecture of Ecuadorian transfer compliance clearer. Organisations must satisfy both the general rules governing personal-data processing and the additional conditions governing movement. The strongest evidence is not a clause in isolation, but a controlled and documented data flow.
Official sources
- Superintendence of Personal Data Protection: Resolution 0024
- Official signed text of Resolution SPDP-SPD-2025-0024-R
- Official Registry: Second Supplement No. 98
This article provides general information and is not legal advice.
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