Compare countries

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

Countries

LithuaniaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Lithuania has no general rule that data must stay in the country. Private companies follow the European rulebook: data can go abroad once the right paperwork is in place. The wall is in government. The data behind the state's most important computer systems must sit in Lithuanian state data centres — and a copy of the most critical state data must be kept abroad on purpose.
The catch: The easy answer stops being true the moment you sell computing to the Lithuanian state. State information resources are graded into four importance levels. The top two must be held in state data centres inside Lithuania. The bottom two may sit in a foreign or private data centre, but a copy must still be kept in a Lithuanian state data centre — and the government has only approved data centres in European Union, European Economic Area and NATO countries. Lithuania also runs a 'digital embassy': copies of the most critical state data are deliberately stored outside Lithuania so the state survives an invasion. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, telecoms and online gambling have no storage-location rule that we could find. Health records are not walled off by a location rule, but almost all of them flow into a state health system that lives inside that government wall.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. A company with no office in Lithuania is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Lithuania, or watches what they do online. There is no size or revenue threshold to hide under — a two-person company is covered exactly like a bank. If you have no office anywhere in the European Union, you must appoint a representative inside the Union who can be contacted by regulators and by the public.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: For an ordinary business, yes. Lithuania has not added a national storage-location rule on top of the European rules, so data can leave once you have the standard European paperwork. The exception is government. If a computer system counts as a state information resource, Lithuania grades it by importance, and the two top grades must be held in state data centres inside Lithuania. The two lower grades can sit abroad, but a copy must still be kept in a Lithuanian state data centre. Lithuania also forces the opposite move for its most critical state data: a copy must be kept outside the country, in what it calls a digital embassy.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Lithuania uses the European model: a destination is off-limits unless you have an approved route out. The easiest route is an approved-country list, which is populated and currently includes the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil and others, plus United States companies signed up to the European Union–United States Data Privacy Framework. If your destination is not on the list, the normal answer is a set of standard contract clauses published by the European Commission. Lithuania adds one local step: if you want to use your own custom contract wording instead of the standard clauses, you need written permission from the Lithuanian regulator first.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The main regulator is the State Data Protection Inspectorate, and it is genuinely working. In 2025 it received 2,081 complaints, up 48 percent on the year before, ran 26 inspections and had 54 staff. By 31 July 2026 it had already published 122 decisions for the year. But the fines are small: it issued only five fines in the whole of 2025, the largest being 9,000 euros (about 9,800 US dollars). Lithuania also has a second, less well known data regulator for journalism, and a separate cyber regulator inside the defence ministry.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions apply and they pull against each other. The ceiling comes from Europe: you must delete personal data once you no longer need it for the purpose you collected it for. The floors come from Lithuanian sector rules and from retention tables issued by the Chief Archivist. Some floors are very long. Health records in the state e-health system are kept for the patient's whole life plus three years, then archived for 75 years. Online gambling systems must keep their logs for at least 90 days. When a floor and the ceiling clash, the floor wins for as long as it lasts, because keeping the data is then a legal duty.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least two clocks, and they do not agree. If personal data is exposed, you have 72 hours to tell the State Data Protection Inspectorate. If you are covered by the Cybersecurity Law, a serious cyber incident must be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre within 24 hours — a full day earlier — with a fuller assessment at 72 hours and a final report within one month. Other incidents get 72 hours. Financial firms have a third clock under European digital resilience rules. Lithuanian organisations are visibly bad at the first clock: only 63 percent of breach reports in 2025 arrived on time.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. Children can consent for themselves at 14 in Lithuania, not 16, so an age gate built for the European default is wrong here. You may never publish a Lithuanian personal identification number, and you may never use one for marketing. Complaining about a government body is worth less than you think, because fines on public institutions are capped at 30,000 or 60,000 euros. There are two data regulators, and journalism goes to the other one. And if you sell cloud services to the Lithuanian state, your data centre may simply be ineligible.High confidence
What's about to change?: Two dated changes matter in the next twelve months, and both are European. From 12 January 2027 every cloud provider must let customers move their data out for free — no exit fees at all. Around the same period, the technical security requirements of Lithuania's cyber law start biting for organisations registered in April 2025, roughly two years after registration. The bigger Lithuanian risk is not a new law at all: the government can change where state data must live by resolution, without going to parliament and without consulting anyone.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Government — Lietuvos Respublikos valstybes informaciniu istekliu valdymo istatymas, 45 straipsnis
Government — Lietuvos Respublikos valstybes informaciniu istekliu valdymo istatymas — vidutines ir mazos svarbos istekliai
Government — Skaitmenine ambasada — Vyriausybes nutarimas ir Valstybes informaciniu istekliu valdymo istatymo pakeitimai

PolandChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Poland is a European Union country, so data may leave as long as you use one of the approved European transfer routes. We found no general Polish rule forcing data to stay in the country. The privacy regulator is fully staffed and busy, and it fines government bodies as well as companies. Finance is the sector to watch: the financial supervisor wants cloud data kept in Europe.
The catch: True in general, much weaker in finance. Banks, insurers, brokers and payment firms follow a supervisory notice telling them to keep cloud data in European data centres, to put critical firms' data inside Poland first where they can, and to warn the financial supervisor 14 days before any cloud project starts. That notice is a strong recommendation, not a ban — but the supervisor checks it. Classified government information sits outside all of this and is effectively locked inside Poland.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it reaches you with no office in Poland. European privacy law applies to any organisation anywhere that offers goods or services to people in Poland, or that monitors their behaviour. There is no size or revenue threshold. An organisation based outside Europe normally has to name a representative inside Europe. Poland then adds one local step that foreign groups routinely miss: if you must appoint a data protection officer, you have to tell the Polish regulator that person's name and contact details within 14 days of appointing them.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with paperwork. Poland has not added a general rule of its own that keeps data inside the country, and European law actually forbids member states from imposing storage-location rules on data that is not about people, except on public-security grounds. We searched for industry walls in banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, telecoms, government cloud, mapping and gambling. The only one we could confirm from an official Polish source is in finance, and it is a firm supervisory recommendation rather than an outright ban.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Think of it as an approved-routes list. Personal data may go outside Europe if the destination country has been officially approved, or if you sign the standard European contract with the recipient, or if your corporate group has rules approved by a regulator. The approved-country list is real and populated — roughly sixteen countries plus one international organisation. For the United States it only covers companies that have signed up to a specific certification scheme, so you have to check the recipient, not the country.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Personal Data Protection Office, and it is genuinely working. It is led by Mirosław Wróblewski, it publishes news several times a week, and its public decisions database held 581 decisions when we checked on 18 August 2026, with new ones published through June and July 2026. It fines public bodies too: it penalised the Minister of Justice in June 2026 and a local social welfare centre later the same month. Three other regulators matter — the financial supervisor for banks and insurers, the electronic communications office for telecoms and post, and the Ministry of Digital Affairs for cyber security.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a ceiling and a floor. The ceiling is European: you may not keep personal data in a form that identifies someone for longer than you need it, and you have to be able to state that period. The floor is Polish: tax, accounting, employment and medical rules force you to keep certain records for years. When the two collide, the specific keeping duty wins for those records and everything else must still be deleted on time. We could not open the official Polish texts for the exact periods on the day we checked, so treat any specific number you read elsewhere as unverified until you see the statute.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least two clocks, often three. For a personal data breach you have 72 hours to tell the Polish privacy regulator, and you must warn the people affected without undue delay if the risk to them is high. Separately, Poland rewrote its cyber security law and the new version started on 3 April 2026; if you are on the new register of key or important organisations you also report to the national cyber teams, on a much shorter first clock. Financial firms add a third set of reporting duties to the financial supervisor. The overlap is what breaks people, because the same incident triggers all three with different content and different deadlines.Medium confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. First, appointing a data protection officer is not the end of it — you have 14 days to file that person's name and contact details with the Polish regulator, and foreign groups miss this constantly. Second, the list of Polish organisations that must appoint one is wider than expected and includes the central bank and state research institutes. Third, a brand-new Polish law on data management started in July 2026 and can fine you about two million złoty, roughly $550,000, for sending protected public-sector data to the wrong country. Fourth, the financial supervisor expects to be told 14 days before a cloud project starts and wants critical firms' data inside Poland where possible. Fifth, being a public body is no shield — the regulator fined the Minister of Justice in June 2026.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three dated things and one live risk. Poland's new cyber security register is being phased in through 2026: self-registration opened on 7 May 2026, and organisations the ministry enters itself get six months from being served notice to complete their details. On 12 January 2027 European rules ban cloud providers from charging you anything to move your data out. On 2 April 2027 a new European regulation on how privacy regulators run cross-border cases starts to apply, which will change how Polish complaints against foreign companies are handled. The live risk is the European Union–United States data transfer arrangement, which is valid today but being challenged.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	LithuaniaChecked 18 August 2026	PolandChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Lithuania has no general rule that data must stay in the country. Private companies follow the European rulebook: data can go abroad once the right paperwork is in place. The wall is in government. The data behind the state's most important computer systems must sit in Lithuanian state data centres — and a copy of the most critical state data must be kept abroad on purpose.	Poland is a European Union country, so data may leave as long as you use one of the approved European transfer routes. We found no general Polish rule forcing data to stay in the country. The privacy regulator is fully staffed and busy, and it fines government bodies as well as companies. Finance is the sector to watch: the financial supervisor wants cloud data kept in Europe.
The catch	The easy answer stops being true the moment you sell computing to the Lithuanian state. State information resources are graded into four importance levels. The top two must be held in state data centres inside Lithuania. The bottom two may sit in a foreign or private data centre, but a copy must still be kept in a Lithuanian state data centre — and the government has only approved data centres in European Union, European Economic Area and NATO countries. Lithuania also runs a 'digital embassy': copies of the most critical state data are deliberately stored outside Lithuania so the state survives an invasion. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, telecoms and online gambling have no storage-location rule that we could find. Health records are not walled off by a location rule, but almost all of them flow into a state health system that lives inside that government wall.	True in general, much weaker in finance. Banks, insurers, brokers and payment firms follow a supervisory notice telling them to keep cloud data in European data centres, to put critical firms' data inside Poland first where they can, and to warn the financial supervisor 14 days before any cloud project starts. That notice is a strong recommendation, not a ban — but the supervisor checks it. Classified government information sits outside all of this and is effectively locked inside Poland.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. A company with no office in Lithuania is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Lithuania, or watches what they do online. There is no size or revenue threshold to hide under — a two-person company is covered exactly like a bank. If you have no office anywhere in the European Union, you must appoint a representative inside the Union who can be contacted by regulators and by the public.High confidence	Yes, it reaches you with no office in Poland. European privacy law applies to any organisation anywhere that offers goods or services to people in Poland, or that monitors their behaviour. There is no size or revenue threshold. An organisation based outside Europe normally has to name a representative inside Europe. Poland then adds one local step that foreign groups routinely miss: if you must appoint a data protection officer, you have to tell the Polish regulator that person's name and contact details within 14 days of appointing them.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	For an ordinary business, yes. Lithuania has not added a national storage-location rule on top of the European rules, so data can leave once you have the standard European paperwork. The exception is government. If a computer system counts as a state information resource, Lithuania grades it by importance, and the two top grades must be held in state data centres inside Lithuania. The two lower grades can sit abroad, but a copy must still be kept in a Lithuanian state data centre. Lithuania also forces the opposite move for its most critical state data: a copy must be kept outside the country, in what it calls a digital embassy.Medium confidence	Yes, with paperwork. Poland has not added a general rule of its own that keeps data inside the country, and European law actually forbids member states from imposing storage-location rules on data that is not about people, except on public-security grounds. We searched for industry walls in banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, telecoms, government cloud, mapping and gambling. The only one we could confirm from an official Polish source is in finance, and it is a firm supervisory recommendation rather than an outright ban.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	Lithuania uses the European model: a destination is off-limits unless you have an approved route out. The easiest route is an approved-country list, which is populated and currently includes the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil and others, plus United States companies signed up to the European Union–United States Data Privacy Framework. If your destination is not on the list, the normal answer is a set of standard contract clauses published by the European Commission. Lithuania adds one local step: if you want to use your own custom contract wording instead of the standard clauses, you need written permission from the Lithuanian regulator first.High confidence	Think of it as an approved-routes list. Personal data may go outside Europe if the destination country has been officially approved, or if you sign the standard European contract with the recipient, or if your corporate group has rules approved by a regulator. The approved-country list is real and populated — roughly sixteen countries plus one international organisation. For the United States it only covers companies that have signed up to a specific certification scheme, so you have to check the recipient, not the country.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	The main regulator is the State Data Protection Inspectorate, and it is genuinely working. In 2025 it received 2,081 complaints, up 48 percent on the year before, ran 26 inspections and had 54 staff. By 31 July 2026 it had already published 122 decisions for the year. But the fines are small: it issued only five fines in the whole of 2025, the largest being 9,000 euros (about 9,800 US dollars). Lithuania also has a second, less well known data regulator for journalism, and a separate cyber regulator inside the defence ministry.High confidence	The Personal Data Protection Office, and it is genuinely working. It is led by Mirosław Wróblewski, it publishes news several times a week, and its public decisions database held 581 decisions when we checked on 18 August 2026, with new ones published through June and July 2026. It fines public bodies too: it penalised the Minister of Justice in June 2026 and a local social welfare centre later the same month. Three other regulators matter — the financial supervisor for banks and insurers, the electronic communications office for telecoms and post, and the Ministry of Digital Affairs for cyber security.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	Both directions apply and they pull against each other. The ceiling comes from Europe: you must delete personal data once you no longer need it for the purpose you collected it for. The floors come from Lithuanian sector rules and from retention tables issued by the Chief Archivist. Some floors are very long. Health records in the state e-health system are kept for the patient's whole life plus three years, then archived for 75 years. Online gambling systems must keep their logs for at least 90 days. When a floor and the ceiling clash, the floor wins for as long as it lasts, because keeping the data is then a legal duty.Medium confidence	There is a ceiling and a floor. The ceiling is European: you may not keep personal data in a form that identifies someone for longer than you need it, and you have to be able to state that period. The floor is Polish: tax, accounting, employment and medical rules force you to keep certain records for years. When the two collide, the specific keeping duty wins for those records and everything else must still be deleted on time. We could not open the official Polish texts for the exact periods on the day we checked, so treat any specific number you read elsewhere as unverified until you see the statute.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count at least two clocks, and they do not agree. If personal data is exposed, you have 72 hours to tell the State Data Protection Inspectorate. If you are covered by the Cybersecurity Law, a serious cyber incident must be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre within 24 hours — a full day earlier — with a fuller assessment at 72 hours and a final report within one month. Other incidents get 72 hours. Financial firms have a third clock under European digital resilience rules. Lithuanian organisations are visibly bad at the first clock: only 63 percent of breach reports in 2025 arrived on time.High confidence	Count at least two clocks, often three. For a personal data breach you have 72 hours to tell the Polish privacy regulator, and you must warn the people affected without undue delay if the risk to them is high. Separately, Poland rewrote its cyber security law and the new version started on 3 April 2026; if you are on the new register of key or important organisations you also report to the national cyber teams, on a much shorter first clock. Financial firms add a third set of reporting duties to the financial supervisor. The overlap is what breaks people, because the same incident triggers all three with different content and different deadlines.Medium confidence
What's the trap?	Five things that are not in the summary. Children can consent for themselves at 14 in Lithuania, not 16, so an age gate built for the European default is wrong here. You may never publish a Lithuanian personal identification number, and you may never use one for marketing. Complaining about a government body is worth less than you think, because fines on public institutions are capped at 30,000 or 60,000 euros. There are two data regulators, and journalism goes to the other one. And if you sell cloud services to the Lithuanian state, your data centre may simply be ineligible.High confidence	Five things that are not in the summary. First, appointing a data protection officer is not the end of it — you have 14 days to file that person's name and contact details with the Polish regulator, and foreign groups miss this constantly. Second, the list of Polish organisations that must appoint one is wider than expected and includes the central bank and state research institutes. Third, a brand-new Polish law on data management started in July 2026 and can fine you about two million złoty, roughly $550,000, for sending protected public-sector data to the wrong country. Fourth, the financial supervisor expects to be told 14 days before a cloud project starts and wants critical firms' data inside Poland where possible. Fifth, being a public body is no shield — the regulator fined the Minister of Justice in June 2026.High confidence
What's about to change?	Two dated changes matter in the next twelve months, and both are European. From 12 January 2027 every cloud provider must let customers move their data out for free — no exit fees at all. Around the same period, the technical security requirements of Lithuania's cyber law start biting for organisations registered in April 2025, roughly two years after registration. The bigger Lithuanian risk is not a new law at all: the government can change where state data must live by resolution, without going to parliament and without consulting anyone.Medium confidence	Three dated things and one live risk. Poland's new cyber security register is being phased in through 2026: self-registration opened on 7 May 2026, and organisations the ministry enters itself get six months from being served notice to complete their details. On 12 January 2027 European rules ban cloud providers from charging you anything to move your data out. On 2 April 2027 a new European regulation on how privacy regulators run cross-border cases starts to apply, which will change how Polish complaints against foreign companies are handled. The live risk is the European Union–United States data transfer arrangement, which is valid today but being challenged.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	Government — Lietuvos Respublikos valstybes informaciniu istekliu valdymo istatymas, 45 straipsnis Government — Lietuvos Respublikos valstybes informaciniu istekliu valdymo istatymas — vidutines ir mazos svarbos istekliai Government — Skaitmenine ambasada — Vyriausybes nutarimas ir Valstybes informaciniu istekliu valdymo istatymo pakeitimai	None found.