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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.

LatviaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Latvia follows European Union privacy rules, so personal data may leave the country once the right paperwork is in place. But Latvia adds its own walls. Accounting records may not be stored outside the European Union at all. Phone and internet companies must hold call records for eighteen months. Banks need the central bank's blessing before handing systems to an outside supplier.
The catch: The relaxed European headline stops being true the moment you touch four things. (1) Accounting records: paper must stay in Latvia and electronic copies must stay inside the European Union, so a United States accounting or resource-planning cloud is unlawful for a Latvian company. (2) Telecoms: eighteen months of call and connection records, plus a gag on telling the customer. (3) Banking: significant outsourcing needs a filing with the central bank and a thirty-working-day wait. (4) State critical computer systems: the supplier and its owners must be from a NATO, European Union, European Free Trade Association or NATO Indo-Pacific partner country, and audit information may only be handled inside that same group of countries.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. A company with no office in Latvia is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Latvia or watches what they do online. That reach comes from the European Union privacy regulation, which applies directly in Latvia. There is no size or revenue threshold to duck under. A company based outside Europe normally has to name a contact person inside the European Union. Latvia's own privacy act adds national detail rather than a separate territorial test.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Personal data can leave Latvia, but the answer flips depending on what kind of data it is. For ordinary personal data the European rules apply: send it anywhere with the right legal instrument. For accounting records the door is shut at the edge of the European Union — paper stays in Latvia, electronic files stay inside the European Union. Phone and internet companies must keep eighteen months of call records. Banks must clear big outsourcing deals with the central bank first. State critical computer systems can only be supplied and audited from allied countries.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: For personal data the model is a permission list, not a ban list. You may send data to a country the European Commission has approved, or use the European Union's standard contract template, or use approved group-wide rules. The approved list is real and long — it includes the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and, for self-certified companies only, the United States. For accounting records none of this helps: the wall is geographic, and no contract unlocks it.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The privacy regulator is the State Data Inspectorate, and it is genuinely working, not a name on a door. In 2025 it took 1,034 complaints, ran 1,396 checks, applied corrective measures 62 times and issued fines totalling 326,400 euros (about $355,000), the largest single fine being 300,000 euros (about $327,000). It has about 32 staff. In the first half of 2026 it received 832 complaints and opened 73 checks of its own motion. Separate regulators handle banking, telecoms and cyber security, and all are staffed.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Latvia has an unusually crowded set of minimum keeping periods and one surprising maximum. You must keep accounting registers ten years and supporting documents at least five. Phone and internet companies must keep call records eighteen months. Medical records run from one year to forty years depending on the form. In the other direction, security audit trails must normally be deleted after one year — shorter than many global logging policies allow.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least two clocks, and often three. If personal data is exposed you have 72 hours to tell the State Data Inspectorate, and you must tell affected people without delay if the risk to them is high. If you run an essential or important service you also have 24 hours to send an early warning to the cyber incident response body, then 72 hours for a first report — and trust service providers get only 24 hours for that first report too. Banks have a third set of reporting duties under European financial rules.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. One: a child can consent from age 13, not 16, so a Latvian teenager can sign up without a parent. Two: mishandling personal data can be a crime, not just a fine, and a company's responsible employee faces up to four years in prison. Three: your accounting system cannot sit outside the European Union, and its entries must be made in Latvian. Four: audit logs must usually be deleted after one year. Five: a bank cannot move systems to a new supplier until it has filed with the central bank and waited thirty working days.High confidence
What's about to change?: Two dated items and three switches. On 12 January 2027 the European Data Act bans cloud providers from charging customers to move their data out — a real change to cloud contracts used in Latvia. On 14 October 2026 Latvia holds its next data protection specialist qualification examination. The switches: the government may still write binding rules on where computer systems are hosted and has not done so; the European Union's approval of United States data transfers is under formal challenge; and the cyber security law is being amended piece by piece.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: All industries — Grāmatvedības likums
Government — Ministru kabineta noteikumi Nr. 397 "Minimālās kiberdrošības prasības"

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	Saudi ArabiaChecked 18 August 2026	LatviaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Waking up	Depends on your industry 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.	Latvia follows European Union privacy rules, so personal data may leave the country once the right paperwork is in place. But Latvia adds its own walls. Accounting records may not be stored outside the European Union at all. Phone and internet companies must hold call records for eighteen months. Banks need the central bank's blessing before handing systems to an outside supplier.
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.	The relaxed European headline stops being true the moment you touch four things. (1) Accounting records: paper must stay in Latvia and electronic copies must stay inside the European Union, so a United States accounting or resource-planning cloud is unlawful for a Latvian company. (2) Telecoms: eighteen months of call and connection records, plus a gag on telling the customer. (3) Banking: significant outsourcing needs a filing with the central bank and a thirty-working-day wait. (4) State critical computer systems: the supplier and its owners must be from a NATO, European Union, European Free Trade Association or NATO Indo-Pacific partner country, and audit information may only be handled inside that same group of countries.
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 Latvia is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Latvia or watches what they do online. That reach comes from the European Union privacy regulation, which applies directly in Latvia. There is no size or revenue threshold to duck under. A company based outside Europe normally has to name a contact person inside the European Union. Latvia's own privacy act adds national detail rather than a separate territorial test.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	Personal data can leave Latvia, but the answer flips depending on what kind of data it is. For ordinary personal data the European rules apply: send it anywhere with the right legal instrument. For accounting records the door is shut at the edge of the European Union — paper stays in Latvia, electronic files stay inside the European Union. Phone and internet companies must keep eighteen months of call records. Banks must clear big outsourcing deals with the central bank first. State critical computer systems can only be supplied and audited from allied countries.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	For personal data the model is a permission list, not a ban list. You may send data to a country the European Commission has approved, or use the European Union's standard contract template, or use approved group-wide rules. The approved list is real and long — it includes the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and, for self-certified companies only, the United States. For accounting records none of this helps: the wall is geographic, and no contract unlocks it.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 privacy regulator is the State Data Inspectorate, and it is genuinely working, not a name on a door. In 2025 it took 1,034 complaints, ran 1,396 checks, applied corrective measures 62 times and issued fines totalling 326,400 euros (about $355,000), the largest single fine being 300,000 euros (about $327,000). It has about 32 staff. In the first half of 2026 it received 832 complaints and opened 73 checks of its own motion. Separate regulators handle banking, telecoms and cyber security, and all are staffed.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	Latvia has an unusually crowded set of minimum keeping periods and one surprising maximum. You must keep accounting registers ten years and supporting documents at least five. Phone and internet companies must keep call records eighteen months. Medical records run from one year to forty years depending on the form. In the other direction, security audit trails must normally be deleted after one year — shorter than many global logging policies allow.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	Count at least two clocks, and often three. If personal data is exposed you have 72 hours to tell the State Data Inspectorate, and you must tell affected people without delay if the risk to them is high. If you run an essential or important service you also have 24 hours to send an early warning to the cyber incident response body, then 72 hours for a first report — and trust service providers get only 24 hours for that first report too. Banks have a third set of reporting duties under European financial rules.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	Five things that are not in the summary. One: a child can consent from age 13, not 16, so a Latvian teenager can sign up without a parent. Two: mishandling personal data can be a crime, not just a fine, and a company's responsible employee faces up to four years in prison. Three: your accounting system cannot sit outside the European Union, and its entries must be made in Latvian. Four: audit logs must usually be deleted after one year. Five: a bank cannot move systems to a new supplier until it has filed with the central bank and waited thirty working days.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	Two dated items and three switches. On 12 January 2027 the European Data Act bans cloud providers from charging customers to move their data out — a real change to cloud contracts used in Latvia. On 14 October 2026 Latvia holds its next data protection specialist qualification examination. The switches: the government may still write binding rules on where computer systems are hosted and has not done so; the European Union's approval of United States data transfers is under formal challenge; and the cyber security law is being amended piece by piece.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall	None found.	All industries — Grāmatvedības likums Government — Ministru kabineta noteikumi Nr. 397 "Minimālās kiberdrošības prasības"