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

Countries

Saudi ArabiaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: HighEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Data can leave Saudi Arabia, but never for free. You need a purpose the law allows, a written safeguard such as the government's own standard contract, and a written risk assessment that asks whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom itself. Banks need the central bank's written permission before anything goes abroad. The privacy regulator is fully set up but publishes no fines.
The catch: The 'paperwork and you can send it' answer is true for an ordinary business. It is false for banks and finance companies, where the central bank must give written no-objection first and cloud is expected to sit inside the country. It is also unsettled for government bodies and critical national infrastructure: the old rule forcing them to host inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024 and replaced by a duty to ask a government office for a decision, and that office has published no replacement rule.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. The law reaches a company anywhere in the world with no office in Saudi Arabia, as long as it handles the data of people living in the Kingdom. There is no size, revenue or headcount threshold to fall below. There is no general duty to appoint a local representative, but many organisations must register on the government's data platform and some must name a data protection officer.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Yes, with real paperwork. First the reason for sending it has to be on the government's short list of allowed purposes. Then you need a safeguard: the government's own standard contract, approved group-wide rules, or a certificate from a licensed body. Then you must write a risk assessment that includes whether the transfer could damage the Kingdom's vital interests. Two industries are much harder. Banks and finance companies must get the central bank's written no-objection before any data goes to an overseas supplier, and the central bank's rules say cloud services should sit inside Saudi Arabia unless it approves otherwise. For government bodies and critical national infrastructure the picture changed in 2024 and is now genuinely unclear.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-destination list, and the list is empty. The law says data may go to a country the regulator has judged good enough, but no such list has been published, so in practice nobody uses that route. Instead almost everyone relies on the escape hatches: sign the government's word-for-word standard contract, or get approved group-wide rules for a multinational, or send to a body holding a certificate from a licensed Saudi accreditation body. On top of that you must run a written risk assessment before the data moves.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority is the privacy regulator, and it is genuinely up and running. Its National Data Governance Platform is live and takes registrations, self-assessments, breach reports and complaints, and it has published the rulebook for the panels that hear violations and issue fines. What we could not find is a single published fine or named decision, so how hard it bites is still unknown. The financial regulator and the cybersecurity authority, by contrast, have supervised their sectors for years.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions apply, and the floor wins when they clash. The ceiling: you must destroy personal data without undue delay once the reason you collected it has gone, and also when someone asks, when they withdraw the only consent you relied on, or when you learn you processed it unlawfully. Destruction must reach backups too. The floor: your written record of processing activities must be kept for five years after the activity ends. If another law sets a keeping period, the law says keep the data until whichever is longer.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: The main clock is 72 hours. If personal data is breached, lost or accessed unlawfully and that could harm the people involved, you must tell the privacy regulator within 72 hours of finding out, through the government's data platform — and you have to be registered on that platform before you can use the service. You must also tell the affected people without undue delay, in plain language. A second, separate clock runs for government bodies and critical national infrastructure, which owe cyber incident reports to the national cybersecurity authority under its own rules. Suppliers owe you notice without undue delay so you can meet your own deadline.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. One: sending data abroad is not only about protecting the individual — you must also assess whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom's own vital interests, and there is a government guide telling you how. Two: the standard contract must be copied word for word, and changing it is itself a breach of the law, while the overseas recipient has to accept Saudi courts. Three: leaking or publishing sensitive data to hurt someone or to profit can put a person in prison for up to two years — this is a criminal charge, not a fine. Four: your supplier contract must go beyond a normal data processing agreement and say whether the supplier is subject to foreign laws and how that affects its compliance. Five: the widely quoted rule that all government and critical infrastructure data must be hosted inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024, and quoting it today is wrong.High confidence
What's about to change?: Nothing is scheduled to commence on a fixed date in the next twelve months — the law and all its main regulations are already fully in force. The risk is the opposite kind: several switches the government already holds and can flip with no consultation. The biggest is the approved-country list, which the regulator is legally required to publish and has not; the day it appears, every transfer plan in the country needs rechecking. The second biggest is the missing localisation rule for government and critical infrastructure, which one office was handed in 2024 and has not yet written.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: None found.

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	Saudi ArabiaChecked 18 August 2026	HungaryChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Data can leave Saudi Arabia, but never for free. You need a purpose the law allows, a written safeguard such as the government's own standard contract, and a written risk assessment that asks whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom itself. Banks need the central bank's written permission before anything goes abroad. The privacy regulator is fully set up but publishes no fines.	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	The 'paperwork and you can send it' answer is true for an ordinary business. It is false for banks and finance companies, where the central bank must give written no-objection first and cloud is expected to sit inside the country. It is also unsettled for government bodies and critical national infrastructure: the old rule forcing them to host inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024 and replaced by a duty to ask a government office for a decision, and that office has published no replacement rule.	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 with no office in Saudi Arabia, as long as it handles the data of people living in the Kingdom. There is no size, revenue or headcount threshold to fall below. There is no general duty to appoint a local representative, but many organisations must register on the government's data platform and some must name a data protection officer.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 real paperwork. First the reason for sending it has to be on the government's short list of allowed purposes. Then you need a safeguard: the government's own standard contract, approved group-wide rules, or a certificate from a licensed body. Then you must write a risk assessment that includes whether the transfer could damage the Kingdom's vital interests. Two industries are much harder. Banks and finance companies must get the central bank's written no-objection before any data goes to an overseas supplier, and the central bank's rules say cloud services should sit inside Saudi Arabia unless it approves otherwise. For government bodies and critical national infrastructure the picture changed in 2024 and is now genuinely unclear.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?	The model is an approved-destination list, and the list is empty. The law says data may go to a country the regulator has judged good enough, but no such list has been published, so in practice nobody uses that route. Instead almost everyone relies on the escape hatches: sign the government's word-for-word standard contract, or get approved group-wide rules for a multinational, or send to a body holding a certificate from a licensed Saudi accreditation body. On top of that you must run a written risk assessment before the data moves.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 Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority is the privacy regulator, and it is genuinely up and running. Its National Data Governance Platform is live and takes registrations, self-assessments, breach reports and complaints, and it has published the rulebook for the panels that hear violations and issue fines. What we could not find is a single published fine or named decision, so how hard it bites is still unknown. The financial regulator and the cybersecurity authority, by contrast, have supervised their sectors for years.Medium 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?	Both directions apply, and the floor wins when they clash. The ceiling: you must destroy personal data without undue delay once the reason you collected it has gone, and also when someone asks, when they withdraw the only consent you relied on, or when you learn you processed it unlawfully. Destruction must reach backups too. The floor: your written record of processing activities must be kept for five years after the activity ends. If another law sets a keeping period, the law says keep the data until whichever is longer.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?	The main clock is 72 hours. If personal data is breached, lost or accessed unlawfully and that could harm the people involved, you must tell the privacy regulator within 72 hours of finding out, through the government's data platform — and you have to be registered on that platform before you can use the service. You must also tell the affected people without undue delay, in plain language. A second, separate clock runs for government bodies and critical national infrastructure, which owe cyber incident reports to the national cybersecurity authority under its own rules. Suppliers owe you notice without undue delay so you can meet your own deadline.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 things that are not in the summary. One: sending data abroad is not only about protecting the individual — you must also assess whether the transfer could harm the Kingdom's own vital interests, and there is a government guide telling you how. Two: the standard contract must be copied word for word, and changing it is itself a breach of the law, while the overseas recipient has to accept Saudi courts. Three: leaking or publishing sensitive data to hurt someone or to profit can put a person in prison for up to two years — this is a criminal charge, not a fine. Four: your supplier contract must go beyond a normal data processing agreement and say whether the supplier is subject to foreign laws and how that affects its compliance. Five: the widely quoted rule that all government and critical infrastructure data must be hosted inside Saudi Arabia was deleted in 2024, and quoting it today is wrong.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?	Nothing is scheduled to commence on a fixed date in the next twelve months — the law and all its main regulations are already fully in force. The risk is the opposite kind: several switches the government already holds and can flip with no consultation. The biggest is the approved-country list, which the regulator is legally required to publish and has not; the day it appears, every transfer plan in the country needs rechecking. The second biggest is the missing localisation rule for government and critical infrastructure, which one office was handed in 2024 and has not yet written.Medium 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	None found.	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. §