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Two or three countries, side by side, one row per question. Pick up to 3.

Countries

GeorgiaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Georgia copied the European model in 2023: data can leave the country, but only to a destination the supervisor has approved, or with a permit, or under a narrow exception. There is no general rule forcing data to stay. The big change is who is in charge — on 2 March 2026 the independent privacy watchdog was replaced by the State Audit Office, and we could not verify that it has issued a single decision since.
The catch: Two things break the calm headline. Telephone and internet connection records are copied into a state-held database inside Georgia, so telecoms cannot treat that data as ordinary business data. And the same State Audit Office that now polices privacy also runs the public register of foreign-funded organisations.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The law catches a company with no office in Georgia if it uses technical means located in Georgia to handle people's data. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to duck under. Worse, a foreign company in that position must appoint a representative in Georgia and register that person with the supervisor BEFORE it starts processing — the only escape is being based in the European Union or in a country the European Union has already approved.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with paperwork. Data may go abroad if the destination country has been judged to give good enough protection, or if the supervisor grants a permit for the contract you have signed, or under a short list of narrow exceptions such as the person's written consent after being told the risks. Nothing in the general law forces data to stay in Georgia. The one place data really does stay is telecoms: a copy of who called whom, and when, sits in a state-run database inside the country.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destinations list, with a permit as the back-up. The supervisor decides which countries offer good enough protection and publishes that decision as a formal act; if your destination is not on it, you need a permit for your contract, or you fall back on a narrow exception such as written consent. We could not find the current published list, so we cannot tell you today which countries are on it — treat that as the single biggest open question in this record.Medium confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: This is where Georgia surprises people. Until 1 March 2026 the job belonged to the Personal Data Protection Service, an independent watchdog. From 2 March 2026 the law hands the same job to the State Audit Office — the body that audits government spending — and its head, the Auditor General, now signs the privacy rules. We can prove the handover happened, because the Auditor General reissued two of the privacy rulebooks at the end of March 2026. We could not find a single enforcement decision published since the handover.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: The ceiling is clear: keep personal data only as long as you need it for the purpose you collected it for, then erase, destroy or strip out the identifying parts, unless another law tells you to keep it. The floors are scattered across tax, accounting and sector laws that we could not open on an official site today. In telecoms the direction is reversed — the content of a call or message must be destroyed at once, while the record of who contacted whom can be copied into a state database and kept for a period set by a separate law.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Two clocks. If personal data is lost, leaked or wrongly handled, you have 72 hours from spotting it to tell the supervisor, and you must keep your own record of the incident and what you did about it. If you run a system the government has listed as critical to the country, you must tell the national computer emergency response team immediately — no fixed number of hours, which in practice means the same day. If both apply to you, both run at once.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five. First, the regulator changed identity on 2 March 2026, so a privacy notice or contract naming the Personal Data Protection Service now points at a body the law no longer mentions. Second, a foreign company must register a representative in Georgia before it starts, not after. Third, a child is anyone under 16, so a European sign-up flow tuned to 13 will be wrong here. Fourth, direct marketing always needs consent, even if you bought the list lawfully. Fifth, the same State Audit Office that now polices privacy also runs the public register of foreign-funded organisations, which must publish detailed information about themselves.Medium confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing new is scheduled to start in the privacy law itself — we checked the current text on 18 August 2026 and found no provisions waiting on a future date. The live story is the handover: the Auditor General is reissuing the four rulebooks inherited from the old watchdog, and two of the four were reissued in March 2026. The rest of the risk sits in switches the government can already flip without a new law.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Telecoms — საქართველოს კანონი ელექტრონული კომუნიკაციების შესახებ

AustraliaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: MediumEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Australia has no general rule that data must stay in the country. You may send personal information anywhere, and no destination is banned. The catch is that you stay legally responsible for whatever your overseas supplier does with it. Small businesses under A$3 million turnover are exempt from the main privacy law. Specific industries are far stricter, and one of them carries a prison sentence.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops the moment you touch six areas. National electronic health records may not leave Australia at all, and taking them offshore is a crime punishable by five years in prison. Banks and insurers must tell the banking regulator before any offshore arrangement. Open banking data, critical infrastructure data, Australian Government hosting and Queensland state government data each have their own rules. Check your sector before you believe the headline.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it reaches you even with no office in Australia. The national privacy law applies to any organisation that carries on business in Australia, whether or not the data is collected or stored here. But Australia has something most countries do not: a real size threshold you can fall below. A business with annual turnover of A$3 million (about US$2 million) or less is generally exempt. That exemption has big holes: it does not apply if you provide a health service, if you buy or sell personal information, or if you supply services under a federal government contract. No local representative and no registration are required.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes. Australia has no national law saying personal data must be kept in the country, and no country is blacklisted. You can pick any cloud region you like. What you cannot do is hand off the risk: if your overseas supplier does something with the data that would break Australian rules, the law treats that as your own breach. The hard walls are industry by industry, and the health one is absolute.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Before data leaves, you must take reasonable steps to make sure the overseas recipient will handle it the Australian way. In practice that means a contract with the right promises in it. There is no government form to file, no approval to wait for, and no list of approved countries to check. A power to approve countries was switched on in December 2024, but as of today the government has not named a single one. The alternative routes are narrow: you can rely on the recipient already being covered by a substantially similar law, or on the person's informed consent after you warn them you will no longer be responsible.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. It is staffed, it has a sitting Privacy Commissioner, and it is issuing decisions. In October 2025 the Federal Court ordered a pathology company to pay A$5.8 million (about US$3.8 million), the first court penalty in the law's history. The regulator sued Optus in August 2025, settled with Meta for A$50 million in December 2024, and in June 2026 alone published formal findings against Optus, American Express and two health providers. Banking, cyber security, online safety and open banking each have their own separate regulator, and all of them are working.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a floor and a ceiling and they pull in opposite directions. The clearest floor is telecoms: phone and internet providers must keep call and connection records for two years, and must encrypt them. The general ceiling has no number attached — you must destroy or de-identify personal information once you genuinely no longer need it. Two ceilings are sharp. A social media platform must destroy age-check information as soon as it has finished using it. A digital identity provider must destroy a face or fingerprint scan immediately after the identity check is complete.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count four clocks, because they run at different speeds. If you pay a ransom and your Australian turnover is above A$3 million (about US$2 million), you have 72 hours to report the payment to the government. If you run critical infrastructure, you have 12 hours for an attack that seriously hits availability, and 72 hours for a lesser one. If you are a bank, insurer or superannuation fund, you have 72 hours for a security incident and only 24 hours if a critical service goes down beyond tolerance. For an ordinary personal data breach you get up to 30 days to assess whether it is serious, then you must tell the regulator and the affected people as soon as you practically can. There is no fixed hour count for that last one, which is the part people get wrong.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that will cost you a weekend. First, moving national electronic health record data offshore is a crime, not a fine: up to five years in prison. Second, you never stop owning your supplier's mistakes — a major bank had to get a special ruling from the Privacy Commissioner just to keep processing international money transfers. Third, since December 2025 social media platforms must keep under-16s off the service and then destroy the age-check data they collected. Fourth, Queensland's rule for state government data is stricter than the national one and is hidden in section 33 of the Act, not in the numbered principles — the principle numbered 8 says there is no equivalent. Fifth, the value of a penalty unit rose to A$364 (about US$240) on 1 July 2026, so every fine figure you looked up before then is now understated.High confidence
What's about to change?: One date dominates: 10 December 2026. On that day privacy policies must start explaining computer-made decisions that significantly affect people, and the new Children's Online Privacy Code must be finalised and registered. The draft of that code was out for public comment from 31 March to 5 June 2026. Further out, the tougher critical infrastructure duties made in June 2026 start biting from mid-2027 and mid-2028 as their grace periods run out. Watch three switches the government already holds and can flip with no consultation.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Health and social care — My Health Records Act 2012, section 77

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	GeorgiaChecked 18 August 2026	AustraliaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Georgia copied the European model in 2023: data can leave the country, but only to a destination the supervisor has approved, or with a permit, or under a narrow exception. There is no general rule forcing data to stay. The big change is who is in charge — on 2 March 2026 the independent privacy watchdog was replaced by the State Audit Office, and we could not verify that it has issued a single decision since.	Australia has no general rule that data must stay in the country. You may send personal information anywhere, and no destination is banned. The catch is that you stay legally responsible for whatever your overseas supplier does with it. Small businesses under A$3 million turnover are exempt from the main privacy law. Specific industries are far stricter, and one of them carries a prison sentence.
The catch	Two things break the calm headline. Telephone and internet connection records are copied into a state-held database inside Georgia, so telecoms cannot treat that data as ordinary business data. And the same State Audit Office that now polices privacy also runs the public register of foreign-funded organisations.	The relaxed headline stops the moment you touch six areas. National electronic health records may not leave Australia at all, and taking them offshore is a crime punishable by five years in prison. Banks and insurers must tell the banking regulator before any offshore arrangement. Open banking data, critical infrastructure data, Australian Government hosting and Queensland state government data each have their own rules. Check your sector before you believe the headline.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. The law catches a company with no office in Georgia if it uses technical means located in Georgia to handle people's data. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to duck under. Worse, a foreign company in that position must appoint a representative in Georgia and register that person with the supervisor BEFORE it starts processing — the only escape is being based in the European Union or in a country the European Union has already approved.High confidence	Yes, it reaches you even with no office in Australia. The national privacy law applies to any organisation that carries on business in Australia, whether or not the data is collected or stored here. But Australia has something most countries do not: a real size threshold you can fall below. A business with annual turnover of A$3 million (about US$2 million) or less is generally exempt. That exemption has big holes: it does not apply if you provide a health service, if you buy or sell personal information, or if you supply services under a federal government contract. No local representative and no registration are required.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	Yes, with paperwork. Data may go abroad if the destination country has been judged to give good enough protection, or if the supervisor grants a permit for the contract you have signed, or under a short list of narrow exceptions such as the person's written consent after being told the risks. Nothing in the general law forces data to stay in Georgia. The one place data really does stay is telecoms: a copy of who called whom, and when, sits in a state-run database inside the country.High confidence	In general, yes. Australia has no national law saying personal data must be kept in the country, and no country is blacklisted. You can pick any cloud region you like. What you cannot do is hand off the risk: if your overseas supplier does something with the data that would break Australian rules, the law treats that as your own breach. The hard walls are industry by industry, and the health one is absolute.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	The model is an approved-destinations list, with a permit as the back-up. The supervisor decides which countries offer good enough protection and publishes that decision as a formal act; if your destination is not on it, you need a permit for your contract, or you fall back on a narrow exception such as written consent. We could not find the current published list, so we cannot tell you today which countries are on it — treat that as the single biggest open question in this record.Medium confidence	Before data leaves, you must take reasonable steps to make sure the overseas recipient will handle it the Australian way. In practice that means a contract with the right promises in it. There is no government form to file, no approval to wait for, and no list of approved countries to check. A power to approve countries was switched on in December 2024, but as of today the government has not named a single one. The alternative routes are narrow: you can rely on the recipient already being covered by a substantially similar law, or on the person's informed consent after you warn them you will no longer be responsible.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	This is where Georgia surprises people. Until 1 March 2026 the job belonged to the Personal Data Protection Service, an independent watchdog. From 2 March 2026 the law hands the same job to the State Audit Office — the body that audits government spending — and its head, the Auditor General, now signs the privacy rules. We can prove the handover happened, because the Auditor General reissued two of the privacy rulebooks at the end of March 2026. We could not find a single enforcement decision published since the handover.Medium confidence	The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. It is staffed, it has a sitting Privacy Commissioner, and it is issuing decisions. In October 2025 the Federal Court ordered a pathology company to pay A$5.8 million (about US$3.8 million), the first court penalty in the law's history. The regulator sued Optus in August 2025, settled with Meta for A$50 million in December 2024, and in June 2026 alone published formal findings against Optus, American Express and two health providers. Banking, cyber security, online safety and open banking each have their own separate regulator, and all of them are working.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	The ceiling is clear: keep personal data only as long as you need it for the purpose you collected it for, then erase, destroy or strip out the identifying parts, unless another law tells you to keep it. The floors are scattered across tax, accounting and sector laws that we could not open on an official site today. In telecoms the direction is reversed — the content of a call or message must be destroyed at once, while the record of who contacted whom can be copied into a state database and kept for a period set by a separate law.Medium confidence	There is a floor and a ceiling and they pull in opposite directions. The clearest floor is telecoms: phone and internet providers must keep call and connection records for two years, and must encrypt them. The general ceiling has no number attached — you must destroy or de-identify personal information once you genuinely no longer need it. Two ceilings are sharp. A social media platform must destroy age-check information as soon as it has finished using it. A digital identity provider must destroy a face or fingerprint scan immediately after the identity check is complete.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Two clocks. If personal data is lost, leaked or wrongly handled, you have 72 hours from spotting it to tell the supervisor, and you must keep your own record of the incident and what you did about it. If you run a system the government has listed as critical to the country, you must tell the national computer emergency response team immediately — no fixed number of hours, which in practice means the same day. If both apply to you, both run at once.High confidence	Count four clocks, because they run at different speeds. If you pay a ransom and your Australian turnover is above A$3 million (about US$2 million), you have 72 hours to report the payment to the government. If you run critical infrastructure, you have 12 hours for an attack that seriously hits availability, and 72 hours for a lesser one. If you are a bank, insurer or superannuation fund, you have 72 hours for a security incident and only 24 hours if a critical service goes down beyond tolerance. For an ordinary personal data breach you get up to 30 days to assess whether it is serious, then you must tell the regulator and the affected people as soon as you practically can. There is no fixed hour count for that last one, which is the part people get wrong.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five. First, the regulator changed identity on 2 March 2026, so a privacy notice or contract naming the Personal Data Protection Service now points at a body the law no longer mentions. Second, a foreign company must register a representative in Georgia before it starts, not after. Third, a child is anyone under 16, so a European sign-up flow tuned to 13 will be wrong here. Fourth, direct marketing always needs consent, even if you bought the list lawfully. Fifth, the same State Audit Office that now polices privacy also runs the public register of foreign-funded organisations, which must publish detailed information about themselves.Medium confidence	Five things that will cost you a weekend. First, moving national electronic health record data offshore is a crime, not a fine: up to five years in prison. Second, you never stop owning your supplier's mistakes — a major bank had to get a special ruling from the Privacy Commissioner just to keep processing international money transfers. Third, since December 2025 social media platforms must keep under-16s off the service and then destroy the age-check data they collected. Fourth, Queensland's rule for state government data is stricter than the national one and is hidden in section 33 of the Act, not in the numbered principles — the principle numbered 8 says there is no equivalent. Fifth, the value of a penalty unit rose to A$364 (about US$240) on 1 July 2026, so every fine figure you looked up before then is now understated.High confidence
What's about to change?	Nothing new is scheduled to start in the privacy law itself — we checked the current text on 18 August 2026 and found no provisions waiting on a future date. The live story is the handover: the Auditor General is reissuing the four rulebooks inherited from the old watchdog, and two of the four were reissued in March 2026. The rest of the risk sits in switches the government can already flip without a new law.Medium confidence	One date dominates: 10 December 2026. On that day privacy policies must start explaining computer-made decisions that significantly affect people, and the new Children's Online Privacy Code must be finalised and registered. The draft of that code was out for public comment from 31 March to 5 June 2026. Further out, the tougher critical infrastructure duties made in June 2026 start biting from mid-2027 and mid-2028 as their grace periods run out. Watch three switches the government already holds and can flip with no consultation.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	Telecoms — საქართველოს კანონი ელექტრონული კომუნიკაციების შესახებ	Health and social care — My Health Records Act 2012, section 77