The objective of this article is to verify that the trend towards the expansion of the territorial scope of application of the law on personal data protection exists in Latin America and that its development has been influenced by the European model. To achieve this, a comparative analysis of different applicability criteria is carried out in this paper. The legal instruments considered are those of the European Union, the Ibero-American Standards, and the legislation in force in the twelve Latin American States that have a general law on the protection of personal data applicable to the processing by private subjects. In addition, the role of some criteria discarded in Europe but in force in Latin America is explored.