Compare countries
Two or three countries, side by side, one row per question. Pick up to 3.
IndonesiaChecked 18 August 2026
Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up
- In one paragraph
- Indonesia's general privacy law lets data leave if the destination protects it about as well as Indonesia does, or you use strong safeguards, or the person agrees. Money and health are walled off. Banks, payment firms, insurers and non-bank lenders must run their systems on Indonesian soil unless the financial regulator says otherwise, and medical records must sit with a local storage provider.
- The catch
- The relaxed headline is true only until you touch banking, payments, insurance and other non-bank finance, electronic medical records, or public-sector systems. In those areas the servers themselves must be in Indonesia, and moving them out needs a written permission that the banking regulator may take three months to grant. The general privacy watchdog looks quiet; the financial regulators are not.
- Does this apply to me?
- Yes. The privacy law follows the data, not the office. It covers any organisation, inside or outside Indonesia, whose handling of personal data has legal effects in Indonesia or affects people in Indonesia. There is no size or revenue cut-off to fall below. An organisation with no presence in the country is expected to name a representative in Indonesia, and any online service used by Indonesians is also expected to register with the digital ministry, which can order internet providers to block services that do not.Medium confidence
- Can the data leave the country?
- In general yes, with homework. You must be able to show the destination protects personal data at a level at least equal to Indonesia's, or put binding safeguards in place, or get the person's clear agreement. That general answer stops at the door of finance, health and government. Banks, payment providers, insurers and other non-bank financial firms must keep their systems in Indonesian data centres and back-up centres, and can only go offshore with written regulator permission. Electronic medical records must be stored with a provider that has storage facilities inside Indonesia.High confidence
- What do I have to do to send it abroad?
- There is no published list of approved countries and no official standard contract to sign. Under the general law you assess the destination yourself, write down why it is safe enough, and keep that evidence. In finance the model is completely different: you need a real permission from the regulator before the systems move, and the banking regulator allows itself up to three months to answer once your paperwork is complete.Medium confidence
- Who enforces this — and are they actually working?
- It depends which rule you break. The privacy law's own watchdog is the weak spot: the law says a supervisory body must be set up by the President, and we found no government source showing it is staffed and issuing decisions as of 18 August 2026. Day to day the digital ministry handles complaints, registration and blocking. The financial regulators are a different story — the Financial Services Authority and the central bank are plainly working, and the Authority issued new binding rules as recently as July 2026.Medium confidence
- How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?
- There is a floor and a ceiling and they collide. The hardest floor is health: a hospital or clinic must keep an electronic medical record for at least 25 years after the patient's last visit. Company and tax paperwork must also be kept for years. The ceiling comes from the privacy law, which says personal data must be erased once the purpose is finished, the retention period ends, or the person withdraws consent. Where they clash, the specific keeping rule wins, so a patient asking for deletion does not defeat the 25-year rule.High confidence
- What happens when something goes wrong?
- Count at least three clocks, and the privacy one is not the fastest. Under the privacy law you have 72 hours to tell the affected people and the regulator about a personal data breach. If you are a bank, you must send the financial regulator a first alert within 24 hours of learning about a serious technology incident, and a full incident report within five working days. Other financial firms, such as insurers and lenders, have five working days. Miss the 24-hour one and the fact that you met the 72-hour one will not help you.High confidence
- What's the trap?
- Five things that ruin weekends. (1) In finance the wall is a permission, not a contract — moving systems abroad needs a regulator licence and the banking regulator gives itself up to three months to decide, so cloud migrations must be planned around that. (2) In health your cloud provider must have storage facilities in Indonesia, and the Ministry of Health can demand access to the whole medical record. (3) The 25-year medical record rule beats a patient's deletion request. (4) The privacy law carries prison sentences, not just fines, so directors are personally exposed. (5) A foreign company with no office still needs a named representative in Indonesia, and a consumer service that is not registered with the digital ministry can be blocked at the internet level.Medium confidence
- What's about to change?
- One dated change is certain: from 1 September 2026 trading in digital financial assets, including crypto, runs under the financial regulator's new rulebook, so anyone in that business should re-check where its servers and records must sit. Two things are still pending as far as we could verify: the detailed implementing regulation under the privacy law, and the presidential decision setting up the privacy watchdog itself. Both could land without warning.Medium confidence
- Hardest industry wall
- Banking — Peraturan Otoritas Jasa Keuangan Nomor 11/POJK.03/2022 tentang Penyelenggaraan Teknologi Informasi oleh Bank Umum
- Payments — Peraturan Bank Indonesia Nomor 23/6/PBI/2021 tentang Penyedia Jasa Pembayaran
- Insurance — Peraturan Otoritas Jasa Keuangan Nomor 4/POJK.05/2021 tentang Penerapan Manajemen Risiko dalam Penggunaan Teknologi Informasi oleh Lembaga Jasa Keuangan Nonbank
- Health and social care — Peraturan Menteri Kesehatan Nomor 24 Tahun 2022 tentang Rekam Medis
- Government — Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 71 Tahun 2019 tentang Penyelenggaraan Sistem dan Transaksi Elektronik
- Mapping and location — Undang-Undang Nomor 4 Tahun 2011 tentang Informasi Geospasial
GreeceChecked 18 August 2026
Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active
- In one paragraph
- For most businesses Greece is a normal European country: personal data can leave, as long as you use one of the standard European transfer tools. But Greece has two hard walls that Europe does not. Phone and internet connection records must physically sit on machines inside Greece. Online gambling operators must keep their records on a server inside Greece too. The privacy regulator is fully staffed and fining companies today.
- The catch
- The relaxed European headline stops being true the moment you touch three things. Telecoms connection records must be stored on physical media inside Greek territory for twelve months. Online gambling records must sit on a server or safe inside Greece for ten years. And Greek public bodies must run their central systems on the Greek state's own clouds, not on a commercial cloud of their choosing. Outside those three, plus the health and public sectors, Greece imposes no storage-location rule of its own.
- Does this apply to me?
- Yes, it reaches a foreign company with no office in Greece. The European privacy rules apply to anyone anywhere who offers goods or services to people in Greece, or who watches what they do online. The Greek national law adds that it also covers anyone processing data on Greek soil. There is no size or revenue threshold that lets you off. If you have no establishment anywhere in Europe, you must appoint a written representative inside the European Union.High confidence
- Can the data leave the country?
- In general, yes. Greece adds no storage-location rule of its own to the European baseline, so ordinary business data can be sent abroad once you have the right European transfer paperwork. Three industries break that rule completely. Telecoms companies must keep their connection records on machines physically inside Greece. Online gambling operators must keep their records on a server inside Greece. And Greek government bodies must run their main systems on state-operated clouds. Health, banking and insurance have extra hoops but no location rule.High confidence
- What do I have to do to send it abroad?
- You need one of the standard European transfer tools before data leaves Europe. The simplest is sending it to a country the European Commission has already approved. If the destination is not approved, you sign the European Commission's standard contract with the recipient, or use approved group-wide internal rules, and you write down why you think the data will still be safe there. Greece adds no extra permission, filing or fee of its own.High confidence
- Who enforces this — and are they actually working?
- Six bodies, and all six are genuinely working. The Hellenic Data Protection Authority is the main privacy regulator and is issuing numbered decisions and fines every month — its most recent published decisions run to July 2026 and include fines on a bank and an electricity supplier. A separate constitutional authority polices the secrecy of communications. There is also a national cybersecurity authority, a telecoms regulator, the central bank for finance and insurance, and a gambling regulator. This is not a paper regime.High confidence
- How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?
- Both directions apply, and they collide. Business books must be kept five years. Medical files must be kept ten years in a private practice and twenty years everywhere else. Online gambling records must be kept ten years. Telecoms connection records must be kept exactly twelve months and then automatically deleted. In the other direction, the European rule says you must not keep personal data longer than you need it. When a specific keeping rule and the general deleting rule clash, the specific keeping rule wins.High confidence
- What happens when something goes wrong?
- Count three clocks, not one. If personal data is lost or exposed, you have 72 hours to tell the privacy regulator. If you run important infrastructure, you have only 24 hours to send a first warning to the national cybersecurity authority, then 72 hours for a fuller report and one month for the final one. If you are a phone or internet provider, you have 24 hours to report a personal data breach and a separate duty to tell the communications secrecy authority. Missing the 24-hour clocks is the most common failure.High confidence
- What's the trap?
- Five things that will cost you a weekend. First, a child in Greece can consent to an online service at fifteen, not sixteen — so an age gate built to the European default is set wrong. Second, misusing personal data is a crime here, with prison time, not just a fine. Third, several articles of the Greek privacy law are printed in the statute but the regulator has formally said they must not be applied, because they clash with European law. Fourth, telecoms connection records must physically stay in Greece. Fifth, government bodies cannot simply pick a commercial cloud.High confidence
- What's about to change?
- Three dated changes. Electronic invoicing between businesses became compulsory for large Greek companies on 2 March 2026 and becomes compulsory for everyone else on 1 October 2026. Greece's new artificial intelligence law took effect on 22 July 2026 and forces public bodies to register every artificial intelligence system before switching it on. And from 12 January 2027 European law bans cloud providers from charging you to move your data out.High confidence
- Hardest industry wall
- Telecoms — Νόμος 3917/2011 — Διατήρηση δεδομένων που παράγονται ή υποβάλλονται σε επεξεργασία σε συνάρτηση με την παροχή υπηρεσιών ηλεκτρονικών επικοινωνιών
- Online gaming — Νόμος 4002/2011 — Ρύθμιση της αγοράς παιγνίων, άρθρο 47, και Κανονισμοί Παιγνίων (ΥΑ 79305/2020 και 79835/2020)
- Government — Νόμος 4727/2020 — Ψηφιακή Διακυβέρνηση, άρθρο 87 (Κυβερνητικά νέφη)