LAB / EXPERIMENT
Data Jurisdiction Explorer
Toggle data localisation on and off to see how different types of transactions are routed, stored, and made accessible to different jurisdictions. Compare pre-2018 and post-2018 data flows.
Related reading: Data Localisation in India
An Indian credit card purchase at a local store, processed through Visa's global network.
What This Shows
Before India's 2018 RBI circular, payment data from Indian transactions could be stored on servers in the US or Singapore. This meant that foreign courts could issue orders to access Indian financial data, and Indian regulators had to navigate slow international legal processes (MLATs) to access the same data.
After localisation, payment data must be stored on Indian servers. This changes the legal jurisdiction over your financial records, Indian law applies, Indian courts have authority, and Indian regulators have direct access.
Note that cross-border transactions necessarily involve multiple jurisdictions, localisation can't prevent data from existing in the destination country. And UPI transactions were always domestic by design (routed through India-based NPCI).