Compare countries

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.

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	Saudi ArabiaChecked 18 August 2026	PolandChecked 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.	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 '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.	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. 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, 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 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, 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?	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	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 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 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 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	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?	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, 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. 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. 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?	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 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.	None found.