The National Archives of Iceland has the legal role of protecting private archives. Private archives refer to data of individuals, organisations and companies. Private data is a vital source of information on the history of a country and a nation and it often provides a perspective on the past that is not reflected in other data, public or printed.

Private archives have not only personal but also social significance, which can be seen in the cultural value of the data, research value, artistic value and so on.

The National Archives of Iceland maintains the largest collection of private documents in Iceland and hosts the website einkaskjalasafn.is, which is a list of private archives in Iceland. It contains information on private archives held by regional archives, the manuscript library of the National Library of Iceland – University Library and the National Archives.