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MaltaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: MediumEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Malta runs on the European rulebook. Data may go abroad once the right paperwork is in place, and there is no general rule that it must stay on the island. Two things break that. Online gaming companies must keep their core systems inside Europe. And any Maltese company that keeps its books abroad must still keep a copy of its accounts in Malta.
The catch: The easy answer stops being true in three places. First, online gaming, which is Malta's biggest regulated industry: a licensed operator's 'key technical setup' — including the player database, the financial database and the control system — must sit in Malta or another European Economic Area country, unless the Malta Gaming Authority approves another location one case at a time. The same operator must also run a live mirror of its essential regulatory data that the Authority can reach at any moment, including physically. Second, company law: if a company keeps its accounting records outside Malta, it must still send to Malta, and keep in Malta, accounts and returns good enough to show the financial position at least every six months. Third, government: the public administration's own cloud policy says cloud services should as a rule be inside the European Union or European Economic Area, and anything classified must go on the government's own cloud. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, education and mapping have no storage-location rule that we could find, checked 18 August 2026.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. Malta's Data Protection Act reaches a company with no office in Malta if it offers goods or services to people in Malta, or watches their behaviour in Malta. There is no size or revenue threshold. There is no extra Maltese representative to appoint beyond the one the European rules already require of companies based outside Europe.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes. Malta has no law saying personal data must be stored on the island. It follows the European Union rules: send data outside Europe once you have an approved destination or the right contract. Three areas override that. Online gaming is the big one, and it is Malta's flagship industry.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Use the European toolkit. Send data to a country the European Commission has approved, or sign the European standard contract, or use approved group-wide rules. Malta adds nothing on top. Malta's own minister has a power to restrict transfers of named categories of data, but has never used it, so the list of Maltese restrictions is empty today.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Information and Data Protection Commissioner. It is real, staffed and issuing decisions: its public register shows around nineteen decisions published in 2026 and thirty-eight in 2025. The fines are small by European standards — most sit between about 2,000 and 20,000 euros (roughly $2,300 to $23,000). The gaming regulator is the harder one, and it cancels licences.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a floor and a ceiling. The floor: company accounting records for ten years, tax and value-added-tax records for at least six years, and anti-money-laundering records for five years. The ceiling: the European rule that you delete personal data once you no longer need it. Where they clash, the specific Maltese law that orders you to keep something wins, because keeping it is then a legal duty.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count three clocks, and they do not line up. Seventy-two hours to tell the privacy regulator about a personal data breach. Twenty-four hours to send a first warning about a serious cyber incident, then seventy-two hours for the full report and one month for the final one. Phone and internet companies have their own separate duty to report straight away.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. A child in Malta is thirteen, not sixteen. Health and biometric research needs the regulator's written permission before you start, not just a risk assessment. Copying someone's identity card is restricted. Leaking a client secret can be a crime, not a fine. And the gaming regulator can keep personal data forever, in a law that says so out loud.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three dated changes. On 1 January 2027 a new law stops insurers, banks and employers asking about a cancer diagnosis once enough time has passed since treatment. On 12 January 2027 European rules make cloud switching and data export fees free. And Malta's artificial intelligence rules started phasing in on 2 August 2026, with the privacy regulator now policing the market.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: All industries — Att dwar il-Kumpaniji (Kap. 386), artikolu 163

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	MaltaChecked 18 August 2026	TaiwanChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Active	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Malta runs on the European rulebook. Data may go abroad once the right paperwork is in place, and there is no general rule that it must stay on the island. Two things break that. Online gaming companies must keep their core systems inside Europe. And any Maltese company that keeps its books abroad must still keep a copy of its accounts in Malta.	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 easy answer stops being true in three places. First, online gaming, which is Malta's biggest regulated industry: a licensed operator's 'key technical setup' — including the player database, the financial database and the control system — must sit in Malta or another European Economic Area country, unless the Malta Gaming Authority approves another location one case at a time. The same operator must also run a live mirror of its essential regulatory data that the Authority can reach at any moment, including physically. Second, company law: if a company keeps its accounting records outside Malta, it must still send to Malta, and keep in Malta, accounts and returns good enough to show the financial position at least every six months. Third, government: the public administration's own cloud policy says cloud services should as a rule be inside the European Union or European Economic Area, and anything classified must go on the government's own cloud. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, health, education and mapping have no storage-location rule that we could find, checked 18 August 2026.	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. Malta's Data Protection Act reaches a company with no office in Malta if it offers goods or services to people in Malta, or watches their behaviour in Malta. There is no size or revenue threshold. There is no extra Maltese representative to appoint beyond the one the European rules already require of companies based outside Europe.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. Malta has no law saying personal data must be stored on the island. It follows the European Union rules: send data outside Europe once you have an approved destination or the right contract. Three areas override that. Online gaming is the big one, and it is Malta's flagship industry.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?	Use the European toolkit. Send data to a country the European Commission has approved, or sign the European standard contract, or use approved group-wide rules. Malta adds nothing on top. Malta's own minister has a power to restrict transfers of named categories of data, but has never used it, so the list of Maltese restrictions is empty today.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 Information and Data Protection Commissioner. It is real, staffed and issuing decisions: its public register shows around nineteen decisions published in 2026 and thirty-eight in 2025. The fines are small by European standards — most sit between about 2,000 and 20,000 euros (roughly $2,300 to $23,000). The gaming regulator is the harder one, and it cancels licences.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?	There is a floor and a ceiling. The floor: company accounting records for ten years, tax and value-added-tax records for at least six years, and anti-money-laundering records for five years. The ceiling: the European rule that you delete personal data once you no longer need it. Where they clash, the specific Maltese law that orders you to keep something wins, because keeping it is then a legal duty.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 three clocks, and they do not line up. Seventy-two hours to tell the privacy regulator about a personal data breach. Twenty-four hours to send a first warning about a serious cyber incident, then seventy-two hours for the full report and one month for the final one. Phone and internet companies have their own separate duty to report straight away.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 are not in the summary. A child in Malta is thirteen, not sixteen. Health and biometric research needs the regulator's written permission before you start, not just a risk assessment. Copying someone's identity card is restricted. Leaking a client secret can be a crime, not a fine. And the gaming regulator can keep personal data forever, in a law that says so out loud.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?	Three dated changes. On 1 January 2027 a new law stops insurers, banks and employers asking about a cancer diagnosis once enough time has passed since treatment. On 12 January 2027 European rules make cloud switching and data export fees free. And Malta's artificial intelligence rules started phasing in on 2 August 2026, with the privacy regulator now policing the market.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	All industries — Att dwar il-Kumpaniji (Kap. 386), artikolu 163	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)