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Countries

AustriaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Austria does not require personal data to be kept in Austria, and we found no Austrian industry that does. Data can leave once the right paperwork is in place under European rules. What Austria adds is a secrecy layer: a constitutional right to data secrecy, a staff secrecy duty, an extra fine of up to 50,000 euros (about $58,000), and a prison offence of up to one year.
The catch: "No local storage needed" is true. "Nothing extra to do" is not. Austria's real cost sits in the secrecy layer, not in a map. A standard supplier data agreement does not satisfy Austrian data secrecy on its own, a child can consent at fourteen rather than sixteen, and misusing data you learned at work is a criminal matter in Austria, not just a fine. Health data also moves only inside a closed, encrypted Austrian health network, which in practice narrows your supplier list even though no law names a country.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. A company with no office in Austria is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Austria, or watches what they do online. There is no size or revenue floor to duck under. If you have no establishment anywhere in the European Union, you must name a representative inside the Union in writing. Austria does not add a second, Austria-only representative on top of that.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with paperwork. We looked for an Austrian rule forcing data to stay in Austria and found none — not in banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, telecoms, government or mapping. Austrian health data is the closest thing to a wall, but it is a technical wall, not a geographic one: findings move only inside a closed, encrypted Austrian health network between registered care providers. Checked on 18 August 2026.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destination list. Sending data outside Europe is fine if the destination is on the European Commission's approved list. If it is not, you sign the European standard contract, or use approved group-wide rules, and you write down a short risk assessment first. You do not need permission from the Austrian regulator. Its own words: apart from a few special cases, international data traffic needs no approval.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Austrian Data Protection Authority, and it is genuinely working. It has had a permanent head, Matthias Schmidl, since 1 January 2024, a deputy, and five departments. It issues decisions, and on 24 June 2026 Austria's highest administrative court confirmed a 13 million euro fine (about $15 million) for building political-opinion profiles on around 2.2 million people. The court held the fine is measured against the whole group's turnover, not one product line.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a ceiling and a floor, and they pull against each other. The ceiling is European: keep personal data no longer than you need it, then delete it. The floor is Austrian tax and company law, which makes you keep books, invoices and business records for years after the year they relate to. Where the two clash, the keeping duty wins for as long as it runs, and the data must then be deleted.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least two clocks, sometimes four. For a personal data breach you tell the Austrian Data Protection Authority without delay and if possible within 72 hours, and if you are late you must explain in writing why. If you run an essential service you also report significant incidents to Austria's network security authority. Banks and insurers report separately under European financial rules, and telecom operators have their own duty.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five that cost people their weekend. A child can consent at fourteen in Austria, not sixteen. Misusing data you only learned about through your job is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison. There is a second, separate Austrian fine of up to 50,000 euros (about $58,000) for breaking data secrecy or running a camera unlawfully. Austrian public bodies cannot be fined at all, but you still can. And the law tells the regulator to warn first, which is not the same as forgiveness.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three things to watch. Austria's Constitutional Court is deciding whether the state may plant software on a phone to read messages; it heard the case on 22 June 2026 and has not ruled. Austria has still not written the new European cybersecurity rules into national law, so that expansion is still ahead of you. And from 12 January 2027, cloud providers across Europe may no longer charge you to move your data out.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

Hong Kong SARChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: MediumEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Hong Kong's privacy law contains a cross-border transfer ban that has never been switched on. It was written in 1995 and, thirty years later, still has no start date. So under the general law you can send personal data anywhere with no paperwork at all. The privacy regulator is busy and prosecutes people, but it cannot fine you directly.
The catch: The free-for-all stops at three doors. Licensed securities and futures firms need written permission from the markets regulator before their records live only on servers outside Hong Kong. Government departments are told not to put sensitive or personal information on public cloud at all. And data coming the other way, from mainland China into Hong Kong, is tightly controlled by mainland law, not by Hong Kong law - that is the wall most companies actually hit.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it can reach you with no office in Hong Kong. The privacy law bites on whoever controls the collection, holding, use or processing of personal data in or from Hong Kong, so a foreign company running a Hong Kong-facing service is caught. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below, no register to join, and no requirement to appoint a local representative. The anti-doxxing powers go further still: the regulator can order an overseas platform to take material down.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Under the general privacy law, yes - freely, with nothing to sign. The one section that would have restricted transfers abroad was written into the law in 1995 and has never been brought into operation, so today there is no legal control on personal data leaving Hong Kong. Industry rules are where the real limits sit, and there are fewer of them than people expect: the securities regulator is the main one, and government departments have their own restriction.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Nothing. There is no approval to seek, no standard contract to sign and no government list to check before personal data leaves Hong Kong. The model on paper is an allowlist - the regulator would publish a list of approved destinations - but because the section was never switched on, that list has never been issued and is empty. The regulator does publish a voluntary guide and encourages firms to build the safeguards now, but that is advice, not law.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, and it is genuinely busy. By the end of December 2025 it had issued 2,104 orders to 57 online platforms to take down 33,743 doxxing messages, opened 519 criminal investigations and arrested 81 people. But there is a catch that changes the risk picture completely: the Commissioner cannot impose a fine for breaking the privacy principles. It serves a notice telling you to fix the problem, and only ignoring that notice is a crime.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a hard ceiling and almost no floor in the privacy law itself. You must erase personal data once it is no longer needed for the purpose you collected it for, and failing to do so is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to HK$10,000 (about $1,300). The privacy law sets no minimum keeping periods; those come from tax, company and anti-money-laundering law instead. Where the two pull against each other, the specific keeping duty in the other law wins, and you delete once it expires.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: For a normal data breach there is no deadline, because there is no duty. Telling the Privacy Commissioner about a breach is voluntary in Hong Kong - the regulator asks you to do it as good practice and gives you a form, but no law compels it. That is unusual and it is changing: since 1 January 2026 operators of designated critical infrastructure must report computer-system security incidents, so those firms now have a real clock while everyone else has none.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that catch people out. First, marketing mistakes are crimes here, not fines - using someone's data for direct marketing without the right consent can mean five years in prison. Second, the regulator cannot fine you, so people assume the risk is low and miss the criminal exposure entirely. Third, Hong Kong sets no age at which a child can consent, so there is no simple number to code into a sign-up flow. Fourth, licensed securities firms need written permission before their records live only on overseas servers, and two named people who live in Hong Kong must be able to unlock them. Fifth, the dormant transfer section, if ever switched on, would also catch data moving between two foreign countries when a Hong Kong company controls it.Medium confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing is scheduled to land in the next twelve months that we could confirm. The critical infrastructure security law already started on 1 January 2026, and the government's guideline for generative artificial intelligence was revised in December 2025. The thing to watch is not a new bill. It is a switch the government has held for thirty years: the cross-border transfer section can be brought into force by a simple commencement notice, with no consultation and no new vote.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	AustriaChecked 18 August 2026	Hong Kong SARChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Austria does not require personal data to be kept in Austria, and we found no Austrian industry that does. Data can leave once the right paperwork is in place under European rules. What Austria adds is a secrecy layer: a constitutional right to data secrecy, a staff secrecy duty, an extra fine of up to 50,000 euros (about $58,000), and a prison offence of up to one year.	Hong Kong's privacy law contains a cross-border transfer ban that has never been switched on. It was written in 1995 and, thirty years later, still has no start date. So under the general law you can send personal data anywhere with no paperwork at all. The privacy regulator is busy and prosecutes people, but it cannot fine you directly.
The catch	"No local storage needed" is true. "Nothing extra to do" is not. Austria's real cost sits in the secrecy layer, not in a map. A standard supplier data agreement does not satisfy Austrian data secrecy on its own, a child can consent at fourteen rather than sixteen, and misusing data you learned at work is a criminal matter in Austria, not just a fine. Health data also moves only inside a closed, encrypted Austrian health network, which in practice narrows your supplier list even though no law names a country.	The free-for-all stops at three doors. Licensed securities and futures firms need written permission from the markets regulator before their records live only on servers outside Hong Kong. Government departments are told not to put sensitive or personal information on public cloud at all. And data coming the other way, from mainland China into Hong Kong, is tightly controlled by mainland law, not by Hong Kong law - that is the wall most companies actually hit.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. A company with no office in Austria is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Austria, or watches what they do online. There is no size or revenue floor to duck under. If you have no establishment anywhere in the European Union, you must name a representative inside the Union in writing. Austria does not add a second, Austria-only representative on top of that.High confidence	Yes, it can reach you with no office in Hong Kong. The privacy law bites on whoever controls the collection, holding, use or processing of personal data in or from Hong Kong, so a foreign company running a Hong Kong-facing service is caught. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below, no register to join, and no requirement to appoint a local representative. The anti-doxxing powers go further still: the regulator can order an overseas platform to take material down.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	Yes, with paperwork. We looked for an Austrian rule forcing data to stay in Austria and found none — not in banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, telecoms, government or mapping. Austrian health data is the closest thing to a wall, but it is a technical wall, not a geographic one: findings move only inside a closed, encrypted Austrian health network between registered care providers. Checked on 18 August 2026.Medium confidence	Under the general privacy law, yes - freely, with nothing to sign. The one section that would have restricted transfers abroad was written into the law in 1995 and has never been brought into operation, so today there is no legal control on personal data leaving Hong Kong. Industry rules are where the real limits sit, and there are fewer of them than people expect: the securities regulator is the main one, and government departments have their own restriction.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	The model is an approved-destination list. Sending data outside Europe is fine if the destination is on the European Commission's approved list. If it is not, you sign the European standard contract, or use approved group-wide rules, and you write down a short risk assessment first. You do not need permission from the Austrian regulator. Its own words: apart from a few special cases, international data traffic needs no approval.High confidence	Nothing. There is no approval to seek, no standard contract to sign and no government list to check before personal data leaves Hong Kong. The model on paper is an allowlist - the regulator would publish a list of approved destinations - but because the section was never switched on, that list has never been issued and is empty. The regulator does publish a voluntary guide and encourages firms to build the safeguards now, but that is advice, not law.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	The Austrian Data Protection Authority, and it is genuinely working. It has had a permanent head, Matthias Schmidl, since 1 January 2024, a deputy, and five departments. It issues decisions, and on 24 June 2026 Austria's highest administrative court confirmed a 13 million euro fine (about $15 million) for building political-opinion profiles on around 2.2 million people. The court held the fine is measured against the whole group's turnover, not one product line.High confidence	The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, and it is genuinely busy. By the end of December 2025 it had issued 2,104 orders to 57 online platforms to take down 33,743 doxxing messages, opened 519 criminal investigations and arrested 81 people. But there is a catch that changes the risk picture completely: the Commissioner cannot impose a fine for breaking the privacy principles. It serves a notice telling you to fix the problem, and only ignoring that notice is a crime.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	There is a ceiling and a floor, and they pull against each other. The ceiling is European: keep personal data no longer than you need it, then delete it. The floor is Austrian tax and company law, which makes you keep books, invoices and business records for years after the year they relate to. Where the two clash, the keeping duty wins for as long as it runs, and the data must then be deleted.Medium confidence	There is a hard ceiling and almost no floor in the privacy law itself. You must erase personal data once it is no longer needed for the purpose you collected it for, and failing to do so is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to HK$10,000 (about $1,300). The privacy law sets no minimum keeping periods; those come from tax, company and anti-money-laundering law instead. Where the two pull against each other, the specific keeping duty in the other law wins, and you delete once it expires.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count at least two clocks, sometimes four. For a personal data breach you tell the Austrian Data Protection Authority without delay and if possible within 72 hours, and if you are late you must explain in writing why. If you run an essential service you also report significant incidents to Austria's network security authority. Banks and insurers report separately under European financial rules, and telecom operators have their own duty.High confidence	For a normal data breach there is no deadline, because there is no duty. Telling the Privacy Commissioner about a breach is voluntary in Hong Kong - the regulator asks you to do it as good practice and gives you a form, but no law compels it. That is unusual and it is changing: since 1 January 2026 operators of designated critical infrastructure must report computer-system security incidents, so those firms now have a real clock while everyone else has none.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five that cost people their weekend. A child can consent at fourteen in Austria, not sixteen. Misusing data you only learned about through your job is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison. There is a second, separate Austrian fine of up to 50,000 euros (about $58,000) for breaking data secrecy or running a camera unlawfully. Austrian public bodies cannot be fined at all, but you still can. And the law tells the regulator to warn first, which is not the same as forgiveness.High confidence	Five things that catch people out. First, marketing mistakes are crimes here, not fines - using someone's data for direct marketing without the right consent can mean five years in prison. Second, the regulator cannot fine you, so people assume the risk is low and miss the criminal exposure entirely. Third, Hong Kong sets no age at which a child can consent, so there is no simple number to code into a sign-up flow. Fourth, licensed securities firms need written permission before their records live only on overseas servers, and two named people who live in Hong Kong must be able to unlock them. Fifth, the dormant transfer section, if ever switched on, would also catch data moving between two foreign countries when a Hong Kong company controls it.Medium confidence
What's about to change?	Three things to watch. Austria's Constitutional Court is deciding whether the state may plant software on a phone to read messages; it heard the case on 22 June 2026 and has not ruled. Austria has still not written the new European cybersecurity rules into national law, so that expansion is still ahead of you. And from 12 January 2027, cloud providers across Europe may no longer charge you to move your data out.High confidence	Nothing is scheduled to land in the next twelve months that we could confirm. The critical infrastructure security law already started on 1 January 2026, and the government's guideline for generative artificial intelligence was revised in December 2025. The thing to watch is not a new bill. It is a switch the government has held for thirty years: the cross-border transfer section can be brought into force by a simple commencement notice, with no consultation and no new vote.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall	None found.	None found.