Belarus

Summary

Belarus presents elevated legal risk for crawling due to a restrictive state-control legal environment. Criminal Code art. 349 (Criminal Code No. 275-Z, 1999 as amended to 2023) criminalises unauthorised access to computer information; the offence is linked to actual harm (destruction, blocking, modification, copying) and also covers circumvention of protection systems. Chapter 31 of the Criminal Code (arts. 349-355) forms a comprehensive cybercrime framework modelled on Council of Europe Budapest Convention obligations. Law on Information, Informatization and Protection of Information No. 455-Z (2008) governs information systems broadly and reinforces access-control obligations. The Law on Personal Data Protection No. 99-Z (7 May 2021, in force 15 November 2021; amended by Law No. 175-Z of 1 June 2022) is the primary data protection instrument, confirmed biometric-category protection. Draft amendments covering AI, video surveillance, audio recording, and outsourced processing are planned for submission to the Council of Ministers in August 2026 (unpublished as of the as_of_date). Belarus is not an EU member or candidate: no EU-style sui generis database right and no TDM copyright exception. Copyright is governed by Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights No. 262-Z (17 May 2012 as amended), which follows a closed-list exception model. Enforcement context is politically sensitive; Freedom House rates internet freedom as 'Not Free'. No English-language scraping case law found. Posture: high caution; significant uncertainty on whether Art. 349's harm element is satisfied by public-page scraping.