What Are Vietnam's Rules for AI Sales Calls and Customer Data?

Short answer: you are responsible for following them, and they are changing. As reported by Vietnamese legal sources we read on 25 October 2026, Decree 91/2020/ND-CP lets advertisers call a person only if they agreed in advance, and requires a check of the national do-not-advertise list. The Personal Data Protection Law has applied since 1 January 2026 and requires provable consent. We could not open the official texts, so read them or ask a Vietnamese adviser before you run a sales campaign. This is not legal advice.

What does Decree 91/2020 say about advertising calls?

Decree 91/2020/ND-CP, on preventing spam messages, emails and calls, has applied since 1 October 2020. Vietnamese press and legal sites report:

• Prior consent. Advertisers may send advertising messages or make advertising calls only to users who agreed in advance to receive advertising.
• The do-not-advertise list. Advertisers must check the list before sending or calling, and telecom providers must block advertising to numbers on it. People join by SMS to 5656 (the "DK DNC" syntax, per Circular 22/2021/TT-BTTTT as summarised by Hoatieu) or on the khongquangcao.ais.gov.vn website.
• Calling hours. Press reports quote Article 13 as allowing advertising calls only from 8:00 to 17:00 each day, unless the user agreed otherwise, with advertising text messages from 7:00 to 22:00. We could not confirm this from the official text.
• Fines. Sources disagree on amounts, so we state none.

A Ministry of Public Security comparison table dated September 2026 shows a draft decree to replace Decree 91. We do not know whether it has been adopted or whether the hours or consent rules change. Treat everything above as "check before you rely on it".

What does the 2026 personal data law add?

The Law on Personal Data Protection, No. 91/2025/QH15, was passed on 26 June 2025 and took effect on 1 January 2026. Decree 356/2025/ND-CP, issued on 31 December 2025, details it and supersedes Decree 13/2023/ND-CP. As reported by law-firm and legal-news summaries:

• Consent stays central. Silence or non-response is not consent, and you must be able to store and show proof of consent.
• Sending personal data abroad needs a transfer impact assessment; one law-firm analysis reports fines of up to 5% of the previous year's revenue for transfer violations.
• Breaches must be reported; one analysis says within 72 hours of detection.

We did not find reliable text on advertising-specific consent under the new law, so ask your adviser how it interacts with Decree 91.

What does the product do and not do?

• Calling hours are set by you for each campaign, on the called person's clock. The platform has no window of its own.
• A do-not-contact list you keep; the agent will not ring a number on it.
• The opening line is yours. Say who is calling and why, and offer to stop.
• A transcript of every call; recording is a per-agent switch, off by default.
• Not included: checking the national do-not-advertise list, collecting or storing proof of consent, or deciding whether your call counts as advertising.

Where is the data, and does that matter?

We support region deployments for enterprise customers. Calls are processed partly in other countries, under transfer safeguards. Whether that meets Vietnam's transfer rules for your business is for your adviser; we do not claim it does, and it may be a reason to ask about a regional deployment.

What would I do before running a campaign?

1. Read the current text of Decree 91/2020 and any replacement on the official legal database, or ask a Vietnamese adviser to.
2. Build the list only from people who asked to be contacted, and keep the record of when and how they agreed.
3. Check the national do-not-advertise list for any number you did not collect yourself.
4. Set the campaign hours on the called person's clock, inside what your adviser confirms.
5. Write an opening line that names the business, says why it is calling and offers to stop, and add anyone who declines to your do-not-contact list.

What is the safe place to start?

Answer your own inbound calls and reply to people who contacted you. A call back to someone who filled in a form asking for one rests on the consent they gave, if you can show it. Cold campaigns need the checks above. The Vietnam page shows the languages and numbers; see voice campaigns for outbound tools and the AI receptionist for inbound.

Sources read on 25 October 2026: Tilleke & Gibbins, English LuatVietnam, Hoatieu, LSVN and VOH (Vietnamese legal press), Meta's WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy. The official gazette texts were not reachable.