Vietnam officially passed its first Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 91/2025/QH15) on June 26, 2025, taking effect on July 1, 2026. This marks a new milestone in Vietnam’s digital transformation – replacing Decree 13/2023 and introducing a comprehensive legal framework that defines how personal data must be collected, stored, and used.

For businesses, especially in marketing, personalization, sales, and customer service, this isn’t just a legal update. It’s a turning point that challenges companies to rethink how they manage and activate customer data – responsibly and transparently.

Why This Law Matters to Every Data-Driven Business

The PDP Law applies to any organization that processes the data of Vietnamese individuals, whether the data is handled locally or abroad.
It distinguishes between two key types of personal data:

• Basic personal data: Name, contact info, ID numbers, etc.
• Sensitive personal data: Biometrics, health, finance, location, beliefs, or data about children.

For most businesses, these data types live across systems such as:

• Data Warehouse – where historical and operational data are consolidated for analytics;
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – managing customer profiles, sales interactions, and communication history;
• CDP (Customer Data Platform) – unifying behavioral and transactional data to enable personalization;
• CXP or CEP (Customer Experience / Engagement Platform) – orchestrating personalized marketing, automation, and customer journeys.

Each of these systems stores, processes, and activates personal data — meaning every one of them must align with the new compliance requirements.

The Golden Rule: Transparency & Consent

Consent sits at the heart of the PDP Law. Businesses can no longer rely on broad or passive consent statements. The law requires explicit, purpose-specific consent for each type of data use.

To comply:

• Clearly state what data is collected and for what purpose (e.g., newsletter sign-up, remarketing, or loyalty program).
• Obtain explicit opt-in — no pre-ticked boxes or silence.
• Make it easy for users to withdraw consent anytime.
• Use digital authentication when handling sensitive data.

💡 Tip: Review every customer touchpoint — from website forms and in-app sign-ups to CRM imports — to ensure consent is captured and stored correctly in your systems. Each platform (CRM, CDP, CEP) should be able to trace consent history and support “right-to-erasure” or “right-to-withdraw” requests.

Personalization with Privacy in Mind

Modern marketing relies on personalization — but under the PDP framework, personalization must be respectful, not intrusive.

DO’S	DON’TS
1. Use first-party data collected directly from customers with their consent. 2. Be transparent about tracking and segmentation logic (e.g., “We use your activity data to recommend relevant offers.”) 3. Let customers manage their communication preferences in CRM or app settings.	1. Combine or enrich data from multiple systems (e.g., CRM + CDP + ad platforms) without a valid consent trail. 2. Run profiling or lookalike modeling that crosses into sensitive data categories (e.g., health or finance) without DPIA approval. 3. Keep “inactive” personal data indefinitely — retention policies must be defined and respected.

When done correctly, compliance doesn’t limit personalization – it builds credibility and trust, giving customers confidence to share more accurate data willingly.

Connecting the Dots: How Data Systems Must Work Together Responsibly

In most organizations, personal data flows across multiple layers:

Layer	Function	Common Data	Compliance Focus
CRM	Manage customer interactions, leads, and deals	Names, emails, phone numbers, communication logs	Consent tracking, purpose limitation
CDP	Unify data from different touchpoints to build 360° profiles	Behavioral, transactional, and event data	Data minimization, anonymization where possible
CEP / CXP	Execute personalized campaigns and experiences	Segments, preferences, campaign responses	Data accuracy, consent-based targeting
Data Warehouse	Central storage and analytics for decision-making	Aggregated data across business units	Secure storage, access control, retention policies

Each system must comply not just individually, but as part of a connected data ecosystem.
That means:

• Every platform must document its data flows and processing purposes.
• Integration pipelines (e.g., syncing data from CRM → CDP → CEP) must include consent flags and data protection logic.
• When exporting data for analytics or AI use, personally identifiable information (PII) should be pseudonymized or encrypted.

The relationship between these systems determines not just how effectively you personalize, but how safely you handle customer trust.

Governance Is Now a Marketing Asset

The new law mandates clear internal responsibilities:

• Appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) or designate a data governance lead.
• Maintain internal records of data processing and consent logs.
• Conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) for sensitive data, profiling, or cross-border transfers.
• Report data breaches within 72 hours to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

For marketing leaders, that means privacy and compliance are no longer the IT team’s problem — they’re part of your customer experience strategy.
When your data ecosystem is clean, governed, and auditable, every campaign you run becomes more accountable and effective.

Turning Compliance Into Competitive Advantage

Compliance often feels like a checklist, but in practice, it’s a trust strategy. Businesses that respect customer privacy will win long-term loyalty.

Here’s how to make it an advantage:

• Be transparent: Communicate openly about what data you collect and why.
• Audit your data pipelines: Check how personal data moves across CRM, CDP, and CEP systems.
• Train your teams: Ensure marketing, sales, and customer service understand consent and retention rules.
• Document everything: Keep a record of DPIAs, data flow diagrams, and incident responses.

Customers are becoming more privacy-aware and the brands that align data usage with ethical standards will build stronger, more sustainable engagement.

Vietnam’s new PDP Law asks every organization to answer a fundamental question: “Can your business innovate and grow — while respecting your customers’ right to privacy?” The companies that succeed will not only meet compliance standards but also build the kind of trust that lasts. Because in the new data economy, trust is the strongest form of personalization.

About Tvia Collab

Tvia Collab helps businesses design marketing, CRM, and data strategies that balance compliance, personalization, and customer trust. We connect martech systems like Marketing auutomation, CRM, CDP, and CEP to create meaningful, privacy-respecting customer journeys that drive growth.

Source: https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/vietnam-law-on-personal-data-protection-latest-developments-and-insights.html/

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