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

Countries

SerbiaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Serbia copied Europe's privacy law almost word for word, so the duties feel familiar. Data can leave the country, and for most of Europe and a long list of other countries it can leave with no paperwork at all. The privacy regulator is busy — over a thousand inspections in 2025 — but it hands out warnings, not fines. The biggest fine any Serbian court imposed for a privacy breach in 2025 was about $950.
The catch: Two industries break the general picture. Online gambling operators must keep a copy of their whole player and transaction database physically inside Serbia. Banks, insurers and other financial firms cannot move any IT work abroad without telling the central bank 30 days ahead, proving the foreign country would let Serbian supervisors inspect on site, and risking a veto that forces them to cancel the contract.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The law reaches a company anywhere in the world if it offers goods or services to people in Serbia, or watches what they do in Serbia. There is no size or revenue threshold to hide behind. If you are caught this way you must appoint a written representative living or based in Serbia, unless your processing is occasional and low risk or you are a public body.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with paperwork — and often with none at all. Serbia treats a very long list of countries as automatically safe: every member of the Council of Europe's data protection treaty, which covers all of Europe plus Argentina, Mexico, Morocco, Mauritius, Senegal, Tunisia, Uruguay, Cape Verde and others, and separately every country the European Union has approved. Sending data there needs no permission and no contract. Everywhere else you sign the Commissioner's standard contract or use approved group rules. Only one industry has a hard wall: online gambling. Banking has a gate rather than a wall.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: First check the destination. If it is on the safe list, you need nothing — no contract, no filing, no approval. If it is not, you sign the standard contract the Serbian regulator published in January 2020, or you get approved group-wide rules. If you want to use your own wording instead of the standard contract, the regulator must approve it and has 60 days to answer. As a last resort there are narrow exceptions such as the person's explicit consent.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, and it is genuinely working. In 2025 it finished 1,169 inspections, received 5,310 cases and issued 102 corrective orders. But it almost never fines. Of those 102 orders, 101 were warnings and one was a ban on processing. It asked the courts to punish only three organisations all year. Banks answer to the National Bank of Serbia instead, and it is fully active. A brand-new Office for Information Security exists on paper since October 2025 but we could find no sign it is running yet.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is no single national rule. The privacy law says keep data only as long as you need it, and each sector sets its own clock. Online gambling operators must keep every transaction for at least ten years. Phone and internet companies must keep who-called-whom records for exactly 12 months and then destroy them. Anyone selling a phone line must keep the customer's identity check for 12 months after the service ends. Financial firms must keep a live register of every outsourced service, including which countries the data sits in.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count three clocks. Privacy breach: tell the Commissioner without delay and at the latest within 72 hours, and if you miss that you must explain why. Cyber incident: if you run an information system the state has classed as important, you have only 24 hours to report it. Then a third clock starts — updates every 24 hours for a serious incident, every three days for a middling one, and a final report within 15 days of the incident ending. Banks report cyber incidents to the central bank instead, promptly, with no fixed hour count.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five. (1) A child can consent for themselves at 15, not 13 or 16 — plan your age gates around 15. (2) A foreign court order or foreign tax authority demand for data is recognised in Serbia only if a treaty backs it, so handing data to an overseas authority on request can itself be unlawful. (3) Individuals, not just companies, can be prosecuted; the regulator has filed 49 criminal complaints since 2010. (4) Dozens of older Serbian laws still contradict the privacy law and were never fixed. (5) The government's official list of safe destination countries has not been touched since 2019 and still names a United States framework that died in 2020.High confidence
What's about to change?: One dated change and several unscheduled ones. From 1 January 2027 the ministry formally takes over supervising the new Office for Information Security, which should mean the office is actually up and running by then. A rewrite of the privacy law is being drafted by a special working group covering video surveillance, biometrics, genetic data and artificial intelligence, and a separate group is drafting an artificial intelligence law. Neither has been published as a bill, so neither is binding.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Online gaming — Pravilnik o informaciono-komunikacionom sistemu za priređivanje posebnih igara na sreću preko sredstava elektronske komunikacije

HungaryChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Hungary has no general rule that data must stay in the country. It runs on the European rulebook: you may send data abroad if you have the right legal paperwork in place. Hungary used to force state registers to be processed on Hungarian soil, but that rule was scrapped in April 2024. The privacy regulator is real, staffed and issuing decisions, though its fines are small by European standards.
The catch: Two things break the easy answer. Since January 2025 a large slice of the economy — energy, transport, banking, health, water, digital infrastructure, waste, manufacturing and most of the public sector — may only use a shared cloud or process data outside Hungary after completing a formal data classification under the cybersecurity law. And an online casino serving Hungarian players must keep its game server inside the European Economic Area, full stop.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. A company with no office in Hungary is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Hungary or watches their behaviour, because the European privacy rules reach outside Europe. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to hide under. If you have no establishment anywhere in Europe you must appoint a written representative inside Europe, and Hungary is a perfectly ordinary place to put one.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, on the normal European terms — nothing in general Hungarian law says data must be stored in Hungary. This is a change worth noticing: the rule that state registers could only be processed on Hungarian soil was repealed with effect from 1 April 2024, and the law that replaced it has no territorial restriction at all. Two sectors override this. An online casino must keep its game server inside the European Economic Area. And any company or public body inside the scope of Hungary's cybersecurity law must finish a formal data classification before it uses a shared cloud service or processes data abroad.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: You need a European transfer tool before the data leaves, and Hungary adds no extra permit, filing or fee on top. The model is an approved-list one: you may send data to a country the European Commission has declared safe, or you sign the standard European contract clauses and write down a risk assessment of the destination. There is no Hungarian government sign-off, and no Hungarian list of banned countries. For police, security and other work outside the European privacy rules, Hungary's own Info Act sets the conditions instead.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, known by its Hungarian initials NAIH, and it is genuinely working. It has published decisions right through to May 2026, released its report on 2025 activity on 30 March 2026, and issued public statements in July and August 2026. Its president is Dr Attila Peterfalvi. The catch is size, not activity: a typical fine is small — two million forint, roughly six thousand dollars, in an April 2025 data-security case.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Hungary pushes hard in both directions. The floor is long: accounting records and vouchers must be kept for eight years, and health records for decades — the health data law works in periods of thirty years and more. The ceiling is the European rule that you delete personal data once the purpose is spent. When the two collide, the specific statutory keep-period wins, so a deletion request does not empty your ledgers or a hospital's files.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least two clocks, and three if you are a bank. A personal data breach goes to the privacy regulator within 72 hours. A cyber incident at a company or public body covered by the cybersecurity law goes to the national incident response centre, and the European rules that Hungary is copying use a 24-hour first alert followed by a fuller report at 72 hours. Financial firms have a separate and faster set of deadlines under the European operational resilience rules.Medium confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. One: mishandling personal data is a crime in Hungary, not just a fine — up to one year in prison, two years for sensitive data, three years for public officials. Two: the old rule forcing state data to stay in Hungary is dead, so quoting it makes you look out of date, while the new cybersecurity classification gate is very much alive and most checklists miss it. Three: several cybersecurity deadlines have already passed, so newly in-scope companies are late on day one. Four: an online casino's game server must sit in the European Economic Area. Five: Hungary's freedom-of-information regime can make your contract with a state body public.High confidence
What's about to change?: Three dated items. The Court of Justice will rule on Hungary's sovereignty protection law; the court's adviser said on 12 February 2026 that it breaks European law, and the judgment could land any time. From 12 January 2027 cloud providers across Europe, Hungary included, must charge nothing to move your data out. And Hungary's cybersecurity supervision moves from paperwork to inspections now that the first audit deadline of 30 June 2026 has passed.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Online gaming — 1991. evi XXXIV. torveny a szerencsejatek szervezeserol es a vegrehajtasi rendeletei (online kaszinojatek engedelyezesi feltetelei)
Government — 2021. evi XCI. torveny a nemzeti adatvagyonrol, 13. §

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	SerbiaChecked 18 August 2026	HungaryChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Serbia copied Europe's privacy law almost word for word, so the duties feel familiar. Data can leave the country, and for most of Europe and a long list of other countries it can leave with no paperwork at all. The privacy regulator is busy — over a thousand inspections in 2025 — but it hands out warnings, not fines. The biggest fine any Serbian court imposed for a privacy breach in 2025 was about $950.	Hungary has no general rule that data must stay in the country. It runs on the European rulebook: you may send data abroad if you have the right legal paperwork in place. Hungary used to force state registers to be processed on Hungarian soil, but that rule was scrapped in April 2024. The privacy regulator is real, staffed and issuing decisions, though its fines are small by European standards.
The catch	Two industries break the general picture. Online gambling operators must keep a copy of their whole player and transaction database physically inside Serbia. Banks, insurers and other financial firms cannot move any IT work abroad without telling the central bank 30 days ahead, proving the foreign country would let Serbian supervisors inspect on site, and risking a veto that forces them to cancel the contract.	Two things break the easy answer. Since January 2025 a large slice of the economy — energy, transport, banking, health, water, digital infrastructure, waste, manufacturing and most of the public sector — may only use a shared cloud or process data outside Hungary after completing a formal data classification under the cybersecurity law. And an online casino serving Hungarian players must keep its game server inside the European Economic Area, full stop.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. The law reaches a company anywhere in the world if it offers goods or services to people in Serbia, or watches what they do in Serbia. There is no size or revenue threshold to hide behind. If you are caught this way you must appoint a written representative living or based in Serbia, unless your processing is occasional and low risk or you are a public body.High confidence	Yes. A company with no office in Hungary is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Hungary or watches their behaviour, because the European privacy rules reach outside Europe. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to hide under. If you have no establishment anywhere in Europe you must appoint a written representative inside Europe, and Hungary is a perfectly ordinary place to put one.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	Yes, with paperwork — and often with none at all. Serbia treats a very long list of countries as automatically safe: every member of the Council of Europe's data protection treaty, which covers all of Europe plus Argentina, Mexico, Morocco, Mauritius, Senegal, Tunisia, Uruguay, Cape Verde and others, and separately every country the European Union has approved. Sending data there needs no permission and no contract. Everywhere else you sign the Commissioner's standard contract or use approved group rules. Only one industry has a hard wall: online gambling. Banking has a gate rather than a wall.High confidence	Yes, on the normal European terms — nothing in general Hungarian law says data must be stored in Hungary. This is a change worth noticing: the rule that state registers could only be processed on Hungarian soil was repealed with effect from 1 April 2024, and the law that replaced it has no territorial restriction at all. Two sectors override this. An online casino must keep its game server inside the European Economic Area. And any company or public body inside the scope of Hungary's cybersecurity law must finish a formal data classification before it uses a shared cloud service or processes data abroad.Medium confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	First check the destination. If it is on the safe list, you need nothing — no contract, no filing, no approval. If it is not, you sign the standard contract the Serbian regulator published in January 2020, or you get approved group-wide rules. If you want to use your own wording instead of the standard contract, the regulator must approve it and has 60 days to answer. As a last resort there are narrow exceptions such as the person's explicit consent.High confidence	You need a European transfer tool before the data leaves, and Hungary adds no extra permit, filing or fee on top. The model is an approved-list one: you may send data to a country the European Commission has declared safe, or you sign the standard European contract clauses and write down a risk assessment of the destination. There is no Hungarian government sign-off, and no Hungarian list of banned countries. For police, security and other work outside the European privacy rules, Hungary's own Info Act sets the conditions instead.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, and it is genuinely working. In 2025 it finished 1,169 inspections, received 5,310 cases and issued 102 corrective orders. But it almost never fines. Of those 102 orders, 101 were warnings and one was a ban on processing. It asked the courts to punish only three organisations all year. Banks answer to the National Bank of Serbia instead, and it is fully active. A brand-new Office for Information Security exists on paper since October 2025 but we could find no sign it is running yet.High confidence	The National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, known by its Hungarian initials NAIH, and it is genuinely working. It has published decisions right through to May 2026, released its report on 2025 activity on 30 March 2026, and issued public statements in July and August 2026. Its president is Dr Attila Peterfalvi. The catch is size, not activity: a typical fine is small — two million forint, roughly six thousand dollars, in an April 2025 data-security case.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	There is no single national rule. The privacy law says keep data only as long as you need it, and each sector sets its own clock. Online gambling operators must keep every transaction for at least ten years. Phone and internet companies must keep who-called-whom records for exactly 12 months and then destroy them. Anyone selling a phone line must keep the customer's identity check for 12 months after the service ends. Financial firms must keep a live register of every outsourced service, including which countries the data sits in.High confidence	Hungary pushes hard in both directions. The floor is long: accounting records and vouchers must be kept for eight years, and health records for decades — the health data law works in periods of thirty years and more. The ceiling is the European rule that you delete personal data once the purpose is spent. When the two collide, the specific statutory keep-period wins, so a deletion request does not empty your ledgers or a hospital's files.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count three clocks. Privacy breach: tell the Commissioner without delay and at the latest within 72 hours, and if you miss that you must explain why. Cyber incident: if you run an information system the state has classed as important, you have only 24 hours to report it. Then a third clock starts — updates every 24 hours for a serious incident, every three days for a middling one, and a final report within 15 days of the incident ending. Banks report cyber incidents to the central bank instead, promptly, with no fixed hour count.High confidence	Count at least two clocks, and three if you are a bank. A personal data breach goes to the privacy regulator within 72 hours. A cyber incident at a company or public body covered by the cybersecurity law goes to the national incident response centre, and the European rules that Hungary is copying use a 24-hour first alert followed by a fuller report at 72 hours. Financial firms have a separate and faster set of deadlines under the European operational resilience rules.Medium confidence
What's the trap?	Five. (1) A child can consent for themselves at 15, not 13 or 16 — plan your age gates around 15. (2) A foreign court order or foreign tax authority demand for data is recognised in Serbia only if a treaty backs it, so handing data to an overseas authority on request can itself be unlawful. (3) Individuals, not just companies, can be prosecuted; the regulator has filed 49 criminal complaints since 2010. (4) Dozens of older Serbian laws still contradict the privacy law and were never fixed. (5) The government's official list of safe destination countries has not been touched since 2019 and still names a United States framework that died in 2020.High confidence	Five things that are not in the summary. One: mishandling personal data is a crime in Hungary, not just a fine — up to one year in prison, two years for sensitive data, three years for public officials. Two: the old rule forcing state data to stay in Hungary is dead, so quoting it makes you look out of date, while the new cybersecurity classification gate is very much alive and most checklists miss it. Three: several cybersecurity deadlines have already passed, so newly in-scope companies are late on day one. Four: an online casino's game server must sit in the European Economic Area. Five: Hungary's freedom-of-information regime can make your contract with a state body public.High confidence
What's about to change?	One dated change and several unscheduled ones. From 1 January 2027 the ministry formally takes over supervising the new Office for Information Security, which should mean the office is actually up and running by then. A rewrite of the privacy law is being drafted by a special working group covering video surveillance, biometrics, genetic data and artificial intelligence, and a separate group is drafting an artificial intelligence law. Neither has been published as a bill, so neither is binding.High confidence	Three dated items. The Court of Justice will rule on Hungary's sovereignty protection law; the court's adviser said on 12 February 2026 that it breaks European law, and the judgment could land any time. From 12 January 2027 cloud providers across Europe, Hungary included, must charge nothing to move your data out. And Hungary's cybersecurity supervision moves from paperwork to inspections now that the first audit deadline of 30 June 2026 has passed.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall	Online gaming — Pravilnik o informaciono-komunikacionom sistemu za priređivanje posebnih igara na sreću preko sredstava elektronske komunikacije	Online gaming — 1991. evi XXXIV. torveny a szerencsejatek szervezeserol es a vegrehajtasi rendeletei (online kaszinojatek engedelyezesi feltetelei) Government — 2021. evi XCI. torveny a nemzeti adatvagyonrol, 13. §