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

Countries

South KoreaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Aggressive

In one paragraph: South Korea's privacy law bans sending personal data abroad unless you have one of five grounds. The usual one is a separate consent, ticked apart from every other consent. Since September 2025 the 30 European countries need no extra paperwork. But banking, health records, government cloud and detailed maps have hard walls no consent can unlock, and the regulator fines foreign companies often.
The catch: The 'get consent and send it' headline stops being true the moment you touch six areas: bank and payment systems, financial customers' national ID numbers, hospital records, government cloud, detailed mapping data, and personal location services. In those areas the data or the machine holding it must physically sit in South Korea, and in the government cloud case so must the people who run it.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The regulator fines companies with no Korean office. In July 2026 it fined TikTok's Singapore company and two Apple companies based in Ireland and Singapore for collecting Korean users' data and sending it abroad without a proper legal basis. If your worldwide revenue was 1 trillion won (about $720 million) or more last year, or you held data on an average of 1 million or more people in Korea per day over the last three months of last year, you must appoint a representative in Korea. Since April 2026, if you already own or control a Korean company, that Korean company has to be the representative.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general yes, but only if you have one of five grounds, and the usual one is a separate consent that the person ticks apart from every other consent. Since September 2025 you can also send data to the 27 European Union countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein with no extra step at all, because the regulator has formally accepted their protection as equal to Korea's. That is the only such list, and no other country is on it. Six industries override all of this and are covered below.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Korea does not police the destination. It polices your paperwork. There is no banned-country list and no approval application to file: you pick one of the five grounds, and for most companies that means asking each person for a separate transfer consent that lists what goes, where, to whom, for how long and how to refuse. The one destination list that exists is a positive one, and it holds exactly 30 countries: the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Send data anywhere else and you also have to keep security measures, a complaints route and a dispute process in place, and write the transfer into your contract with the recipient.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Personal Information Protection Commission, chaired by Song Kyoung-hee, and it is one of the busiest privacy regulators in the world right now. In July 2026 alone it fined the telecoms company KT about 54 billion won (roughly $39 million) over a data breach, fined TikTok about 10.3 billion won (roughly $7.4 million) and Apple about 252 million won (roughly $180,000). It referred KT to prosecutors for obstructing the investigation and asked police to investigate LG U+ for destroying a server before the inquiry started. Finance is separately policed by the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service; health by the health ministry; maps by an inter-agency committee that includes the intelligence service.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Two forces pull in opposite directions. The ceiling: you must destroy personal data without delay once you no longer need it, and destroy it so it cannot be recovered. The floor: other laws make you keep things. An online seller must keep advertising records for 6 months, complaint and dispute records for 3 years, and contract, cancellation, payment and delivery records for 5 years. Almost everyone must keep system access logs for at least 1 year, and 2 years if the system holds data on 50,000 or more people, holds national ID numbers or sensitive data, or belongs to a licensed telecoms carrier. When the two clash, the keeping rule wins, but you must store that data separately from everything else.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count two clocks, and in telecoms and finance a third. Under the privacy law you have 72 hours to tell the affected people, and a separate 72 hours to report to the Commission or to the Korea Internet and Security Agency. The reporting clock starts if 1,000 or more people are affected, or if any sensitive data or national ID numbers leaked, or if the cause was someone breaking in from outside. Separately, an internet service provider must report a cyber incident to the science ministry or the same agency immediately. A hospital must also tell the health ministry about a medical-records incident.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that will cost you a weekend. One: the children's age line is 14, not 13 or 16, and processing an under-14's data without a parent's consent is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, not just a fine. Two: hiding or destroying material during a regulator's inspection is itself a crime, and the regulator used it in July 2026. Three: stripping names out of a dataset does not free it. Four: a bank's Korean customers' national ID numbers may not leave the country at all, and any offshore processing of customers' financial transaction data needs a report to the supervisor 30 business days before work starts. Five: if you want to run a personal location service you must be a corporation and be registered, so you cannot serve Korea from abroad with no entity.High confidence
What's about to change?: The privacy regulator started rewriting the rulebook for artificial intelligence. It set up a reform task force on 30 July 2026, ran a public suggestion window from 6 to 31 August 2026, and plans to publish the direction of reform before the end of 2026. Consent-based rules and the block on sending pseudonymised data abroad for research are both explicitly on the table. Separately, Apple's request to export detailed Korean map data has been pending since its deadline was extended in December 2025, and Google's equivalent request was granted in February 2026 on strict conditions, so the mapping picture can move again at any time.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Banking — 전자금융감독규정 (Regulation on Supervision of Electronic Financial Transactions)
Finance — 금융회사의 정보처리 업무 위탁에 관한 규정 (Regulation on Outsourcing of Data Processing Business by Financial Companies)
Health and social care — 전자의무기록의 관리·보존에 필요한 시설과 장비에 관한 기준 (Standards for the Facilities and Equipment Required to Manage and Preserve Electronic Medical Records)
Government — 클라우드컴퓨팅서비스 보안인증에 관한 고시 (Notice on Security Certification of Cloud Computing Services)
Mapping and location — 공간정보의 구축 및 관리 등에 관한 법률 (Act on the Establishment and Management of Spatial Data)

TaiwanChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Taiwan lets personal data leave the country freely unless the ministry that regulates your industry has issued an order stopping it. There is no single privacy regulator: each industry ministry polices its own sector, and each has written its own security and breach-reporting rules. A big reform that would create one national regulator was passed in November 2025 but has never been switched on.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you touch health records, national health insurance data, banking or telecoms. Hospital data held in the cloud must physically sit in Taiwan. National health insurance records cannot be released to any organisation set up outside Taiwan at all. Banks need the financial regulator's permission before major consumer-finance systems go offshore, and must keep a backup of important customer data in Taiwan if they do.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. Taiwan's privacy law reaches a foreign company with no office and no staff in Taiwan. The law says plainly that it also applies to organisations outside Taiwan that collect, process or use the personal data of Taiwanese people. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below, and the law does not require you to appoint a local representative.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes. Taiwan's privacy law does not ask you to sign anything or get anyone's permission before sending personal data abroad. Instead it gives each industry ministry the power to order that data in its sector may not go to a particular country. But four sectors have real walls, and in two of them the wall is absolute.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Under the general law, nothing. No standard contract, no government approval, no adequacy finding, no consent form. The model is a blocklist run sector by sector: you may send data anywhere unless the ministry that supervises your industry has issued an order stopping it. Your real job is to find out which ministry supervises you and check whether it has issued one.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: There is no national privacy regulator in Taiwan today. A Personal Data Protection Commission is named in the law as the authority in charge, but that provision has never been switched on, the law creating the Commission is still only a bill, and what exists is a preparatory office that writes draft rules and cannot fine anyone. Enforcement is done instead by whichever ministry regulates your industry, plus city and county governments, and those bodies are genuinely active.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions apply, and the floors are set by other laws, not the privacy law. Accounting vouchers must be kept at least five years and account books and financial statements at least ten years. Medical records must be kept at least seven years, and for children until seven years after they turn eighteen; records from human trials must be kept forever. Going the other way, you must delete personal data once the purpose you collected it for has gone or the period you set has run out.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least three clocks, and the fastest is one hour. Telecoms companies and larger internet providers must tell the communications regulator within one hour of learning about a major personal data incident, then file a full report within seventy-two hours. Government bodies and designated critical infrastructure operators also have one hour, under the separate cyber security law. Financial firms get seventy-two hours. And under the privacy law itself you must tell the affected people once you have established the facts, with no fixed deadline attached.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that will cost someone their weekend. First, the official English text of the privacy law on the government's own website includes provisions that are not law yet, including the one naming the national regulator. Second, breaking a cross-border transfer order is a crime, not a fine — up to five years in prison. Third, there is no single regulator to ask; your duties depend on which ministry supervises you. Fourth, a bank asked for Taiwanese customer data by a foreign financial regulator must get Taiwan's regulator's permission first. Fifth, if you are sued, you have to prove you were not at fault.High confidence
What's about to change?: One thing has already landed and one is waiting on a switch. The National Health Insurance Data Management Act came into force on 10 August 2026, and it gives people a short window to opt their health records out of research use before silence counts as agreement. Separately, the big privacy reform passed in November 2025 is sitting on the shelf: the Cabinet can bring it into force whenever it likes, by a single order, with no consultation.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Health and social care — 醫療機構電子病歷製作及管理辦法 (Regulations Governing the Production and Management of Electronic Medical Records by Medical Institutions)
Health and social care — 全民健康保險資料管理條例 (National Health Insurance Data Management Act)
Banking — 金融機構作業委託他人處理內部作業制度及程序辦法 (Regulations Governing Internal Operating Systems and Procedures for the Outsourcing of Financial Institution Operation)

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	South KoreaChecked 18 August 2026	TaiwanChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Aggressive	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	South Korea's privacy law bans sending personal data abroad unless you have one of five grounds. The usual one is a separate consent, ticked apart from every other consent. Since September 2025 the 30 European countries need no extra paperwork. But banking, health records, government cloud and detailed maps have hard walls no consent can unlock, and the regulator fines foreign companies often.	Taiwan lets personal data leave the country freely unless the ministry that regulates your industry has issued an order stopping it. There is no single privacy regulator: each industry ministry polices its own sector, and each has written its own security and breach-reporting rules. A big reform that would create one national regulator was passed in November 2025 but has never been switched on.
The catch	The 'get consent and send it' headline stops being true the moment you touch six areas: bank and payment systems, financial customers' national ID numbers, hospital records, government cloud, detailed mapping data, and personal location services. In those areas the data or the machine holding it must physically sit in South Korea, and in the government cloud case so must the people who run it.	The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you touch health records, national health insurance data, banking or telecoms. Hospital data held in the cloud must physically sit in Taiwan. National health insurance records cannot be released to any organisation set up outside Taiwan at all. Banks need the financial regulator's permission before major consumer-finance systems go offshore, and must keep a backup of important customer data in Taiwan if they do.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. The regulator fines companies with no Korean office. In July 2026 it fined TikTok's Singapore company and two Apple companies based in Ireland and Singapore for collecting Korean users' data and sending it abroad without a proper legal basis. If your worldwide revenue was 1 trillion won (about $720 million) or more last year, or you held data on an average of 1 million or more people in Korea per day over the last three months of last year, you must appoint a representative in Korea. Since April 2026, if you already own or control a Korean company, that Korean company has to be the representative.High confidence	Yes. Taiwan's privacy law reaches a foreign company with no office and no staff in Taiwan. The law says plainly that it also applies to organisations outside Taiwan that collect, process or use the personal data of Taiwanese people. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below, and the law does not require you to appoint a local representative.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	In general yes, but only if you have one of five grounds, and the usual one is a separate consent that the person ticks apart from every other consent. Since September 2025 you can also send data to the 27 European Union countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein with no extra step at all, because the regulator has formally accepted their protection as equal to Korea's. That is the only such list, and no other country is on it. Six industries override all of this and are covered below.High confidence	In general, yes. Taiwan's privacy law does not ask you to sign anything or get anyone's permission before sending personal data abroad. Instead it gives each industry ministry the power to order that data in its sector may not go to a particular country. But four sectors have real walls, and in two of them the wall is absolute.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	Korea does not police the destination. It polices your paperwork. There is no banned-country list and no approval application to file: you pick one of the five grounds, and for most companies that means asking each person for a separate transfer consent that lists what goes, where, to whom, for how long and how to refuse. The one destination list that exists is a positive one, and it holds exactly 30 countries: the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Send data anywhere else and you also have to keep security measures, a complaints route and a dispute process in place, and write the transfer into your contract with the recipient.High confidence	Under the general law, nothing. No standard contract, no government approval, no adequacy finding, no consent form. The model is a blocklist run sector by sector: you may send data anywhere unless the ministry that supervises your industry has issued an order stopping it. Your real job is to find out which ministry supervises you and check whether it has issued one.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	The Personal Information Protection Commission, chaired by Song Kyoung-hee, and it is one of the busiest privacy regulators in the world right now. In July 2026 alone it fined the telecoms company KT about 54 billion won (roughly $39 million) over a data breach, fined TikTok about 10.3 billion won (roughly $7.4 million) and Apple about 252 million won (roughly $180,000). It referred KT to prosecutors for obstructing the investigation and asked police to investigate LG U+ for destroying a server before the inquiry started. Finance is separately policed by the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service; health by the health ministry; maps by an inter-agency committee that includes the intelligence service.High confidence	There is no national privacy regulator in Taiwan today. A Personal Data Protection Commission is named in the law as the authority in charge, but that provision has never been switched on, the law creating the Commission is still only a bill, and what exists is a preparatory office that writes draft rules and cannot fine anyone. Enforcement is done instead by whichever ministry regulates your industry, plus city and county governments, and those bodies are genuinely active.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	Two forces pull in opposite directions. The ceiling: you must destroy personal data without delay once you no longer need it, and destroy it so it cannot be recovered. The floor: other laws make you keep things. An online seller must keep advertising records for 6 months, complaint and dispute records for 3 years, and contract, cancellation, payment and delivery records for 5 years. Almost everyone must keep system access logs for at least 1 year, and 2 years if the system holds data on 50,000 or more people, holds national ID numbers or sensitive data, or belongs to a licensed telecoms carrier. When the two clash, the keeping rule wins, but you must store that data separately from everything else.High confidence	Both directions apply, and the floors are set by other laws, not the privacy law. Accounting vouchers must be kept at least five years and account books and financial statements at least ten years. Medical records must be kept at least seven years, and for children until seven years after they turn eighteen; records from human trials must be kept forever. Going the other way, you must delete personal data once the purpose you collected it for has gone or the period you set has run out.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count two clocks, and in telecoms and finance a third. Under the privacy law you have 72 hours to tell the affected people, and a separate 72 hours to report to the Commission or to the Korea Internet and Security Agency. The reporting clock starts if 1,000 or more people are affected, or if any sensitive data or national ID numbers leaked, or if the cause was someone breaking in from outside. Separately, an internet service provider must report a cyber incident to the science ministry or the same agency immediately. A hospital must also tell the health ministry about a medical-records incident.High confidence	Count at least three clocks, and the fastest is one hour. Telecoms companies and larger internet providers must tell the communications regulator within one hour of learning about a major personal data incident, then file a full report within seventy-two hours. Government bodies and designated critical infrastructure operators also have one hour, under the separate cyber security law. Financial firms get seventy-two hours. And under the privacy law itself you must tell the affected people once you have established the facts, with no fixed deadline attached.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five things that will cost you a weekend. One: the children's age line is 14, not 13 or 16, and processing an under-14's data without a parent's consent is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, not just a fine. Two: hiding or destroying material during a regulator's inspection is itself a crime, and the regulator used it in July 2026. Three: stripping names out of a dataset does not free it. Four: a bank's Korean customers' national ID numbers may not leave the country at all, and any offshore processing of customers' financial transaction data needs a report to the supervisor 30 business days before work starts. Five: if you want to run a personal location service you must be a corporation and be registered, so you cannot serve Korea from abroad with no entity.High confidence	Five things that will cost someone their weekend. First, the official English text of the privacy law on the government's own website includes provisions that are not law yet, including the one naming the national regulator. Second, breaking a cross-border transfer order is a crime, not a fine — up to five years in prison. Third, there is no single regulator to ask; your duties depend on which ministry supervises you. Fourth, a bank asked for Taiwanese customer data by a foreign financial regulator must get Taiwan's regulator's permission first. Fifth, if you are sued, you have to prove you were not at fault.High confidence
What's about to change?	The privacy regulator started rewriting the rulebook for artificial intelligence. It set up a reform task force on 30 July 2026, ran a public suggestion window from 6 to 31 August 2026, and plans to publish the direction of reform before the end of 2026. Consent-based rules and the block on sending pseudonymised data abroad for research are both explicitly on the table. Separately, Apple's request to export detailed Korean map data has been pending since its deadline was extended in December 2025, and Google's equivalent request was granted in February 2026 on strict conditions, so the mapping picture can move again at any time.High confidence	One thing has already landed and one is waiting on a switch. The National Health Insurance Data Management Act came into force on 10 August 2026, and it gives people a short window to opt their health records out of research use before silence counts as agreement. Separately, the big privacy reform passed in November 2025 is sitting on the shelf: the Cabinet can bring it into force whenever it likes, by a single order, with no consultation.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	Banking — 전자금융감독규정 (Regulation on Supervision of Electronic Financial Transactions) Finance — 금융회사의 정보처리 업무 위탁에 관한 규정 (Regulation on Outsourcing of Data Processing Business by Financial Companies) Health and social care — 전자의무기록의 관리·보존에 필요한 시설과 장비에 관한 기준 (Standards for the Facilities and Equipment Required to Manage and Preserve Electronic Medical Records) Government — 클라우드컴퓨팅서비스 보안인증에 관한 고시 (Notice on Security Certification of Cloud Computing Services) Mapping and location — 공간정보의 구축 및 관리 등에 관한 법률 (Act on the Establishment and Management of Spatial Data)	Health and social care — 醫療機構電子病歷製作及管理辦法 (Regulations Governing the Production and Management of Electronic Medical Records by Medical Institutions) Health and social care — 全民健康保險資料管理條例 (National Health Insurance Data Management Act) Banking — 金融機構作業委託他人處理內部作業制度及程序辦法 (Regulations Governing Internal Operating Systems and Procedures for the Outsourcing of Financial Institution Operation)