Paraguay Fast-Tracks Camera Rules

Paraguay entered August 2026 with two parallel debates. On Aug. 11, 2026, the Chamber of Deputies will consider a bill on videocameras with police access, while the government is weighing whether to delay enforcement of the Personal Data Protection Law, which has been in force since November 2025 but is scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1, 2026.

What is the Chamber of Deputies debating on videocameras?

Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies added for Aug. 11, 2026, a bill that regulates the use of videocameras by public forces with citizen participation. According to ABC Color, the text would require police authorization for cameras facing the street or public spaces, and their installation would have to be reported to the National Police.

ABC Color said the initiative was placed as the first item on the agenda for that Tuesday’s regular session. The bill also had a favorable report supporting the Senate’s rejection, and the review deadline expired on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. If it was not considered before that date, it would be archived.

The Chamber of Deputies also left an institutional record of the issue. A video from the Citizen Security Committee, dated Aug. 5, 2026, shows the bill under committee discussion days before the session, confirming that it was still active in the legislative process.

What is happening with the data protection law?

At the same time, local coverage from TEDIC said Paraguay has had a Personal Data Protection Law since November 2025, but that its application is now only expected for the end of 2027. The same coverage said the effective date was set for Dec. 1, 2026, although the government was considering a delay because of difficulties in setting up the institutional framework responsible for enforcing compliance.

TEDIC also pointed to a relevant precedent for the surveillance debate: between 2018 and 2019, the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police installed facial recognition cameras in Asunción, integrated into the 911 system. That context has put renewed attention on the scope of state camera use and the legal framework available to govern it.

With those two fronts moving at the same time, Paraguay reaches August with a legislative proposal that would authorize and organize the use of videocameras by public forces, while the broader data protection law still awaits effective implementation.