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

Countries

SwedenChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Sweden has no general law forcing data to stay in the country. Personal data leaves under the ordinary European rules. But four walls override that: gambling systems must sit in Sweden, telecoms records kept for the police may never leave the European Union, classified material needs a state-to-state deal, and accounting books stay in Sweden unless you tell the tax agency.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you touch online gambling, telecoms records held for law enforcement, security-sensitive activity, detailed maps and sea-depth data, a public authority's secret files, or a Swedish company's accounting books. In those six areas Sweden is far stricter than its reputation suggests, and two of them carry prison sentences rather than fines.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. Sweden applies the European privacy rules, so a company anywhere in the world is caught if it offers goods or services to people in Sweden or watches what they do. There is no size or revenue floor to duck under. Sweden's own top-up law adds Swedish-only duties on top, and those apply to anyone processing data under Swedish law, not just Swedish companies. If you are outside Europe and caught, you normally have to name a representative inside Europe.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes. Sweden has no law that says personal data must physically stay in Sweden, and European law actually bans Sweden from imposing storage rules on non-personal data except for national security reasons. The exceptions are what matter. Online gambling systems must be placed in Sweden. Telephone and internet records that operators keep for the police may not be stored outside the European Union. Security-classified material cannot go to a foreign body without a government-to-government agreement. And a Swedish company's accounting records must be kept in Sweden unless it tells the tax agency where they are instead.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Sweden adds nothing of its own here — it uses the European toolkit unchanged. The model is an allowlist of approved destinations, and that list is well populated: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil and about a dozen others are approved. For everywhere else you sign the European Commission's standard contract, or use group-wide rules approved by a regulator, and you write down why you think the data will still be safe. United States transfers work only if the receiving company has signed up to the European Union–United States Data Privacy Framework, and that arrangement is under legal pressure.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The main privacy regulator is the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, and it is fully staffed and working. It published supervisory decisions in May, June and July 2026, including a reprimand to a large security company over filming its own staff, and in June 2026 it was also made Sweden's market surveillance authority for the European artificial intelligence rules. Other regulators matter just as much in their own lanes: the financial supervisor, the telecoms and post authority, the gambling authority, the Security Service and the Armed Forces.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Sweden has a hard floor and a soft ceiling, and they pull in opposite directions. You must keep company accounting records for seven years after the end of the year they relate to, and patient records for at least ten years after the last entry. Against that, European privacy law says you must delete personal data once you no longer need it. Sweden resolves the clash the same way most of Europe does: a specific legal duty to keep something beats the general duty to delete it, so you keep it, lock it down and use it for nothing else.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least three clocks, and they do not agree. For a personal data breach you have 72 hours to tell the privacy regulator, and you must tell the affected people without undue delay if the risk to them is high. Since 15 January 2026, organisations in important sectors must send an early warning to their cybersecurity supervisor within 24 hours of noticing a significant incident, then a fuller report within 72 hours — but trust service providers get only 24 hours for the full report. Financial firms have a fourth clock under the European digital resilience rules. The 24-hour warning is the one that catches people out.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in any summary. One: a child can consent from age 13 in Sweden, the youngest age Europe allows, so a global default of 16 is wrong here. Two: you may only use a person's Swedish identity number without their consent when it is clearly justified — a Swedish-only rule with no European equivalent. Three: anything you send to a Swedish public authority can become a public document that any member of the public, including a competitor or a journalist, can demand a copy of. Four: giving a supplier access to a public authority's secret files is allowed only for purely technical processing or storage, and only if it is not inappropriate in the circumstances — the ordinary supplier contract is not enough. Five: mapping and sea-depth data is criminal law, not paperwork — spreading it without a permit can mean up to a year in prison.High confidence
What's about to change?: Two dated items. On 1 January 2027 a new law on the resilience of critical operators is proposed to start, covering eleven sectors and adding another 24-hour incident report. Also on 12 January 2027, European rules make it illegal for cloud providers to charge you to move your data out. Watch the government's national cloud policy, adopted on 28 May 2026: today it is only advice with no penalties, but it is the obvious vehicle for a future rule that public bodies must use European providers.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Telecoms — Förordning (2022:511) om elektronisk kommunikation, 9 kap. 4 §
Online gaming — Spellagen (2018:1138), 16 kap. 2 §
Defence — Säkerhetsskyddslagen (2018:585) och Säkerhetsskyddsförordningen (2021:955)

ChinaChecked 18 August 2026

Yes, with paperworkWork: Very highEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Data can leave China, but only through one of three official gates: a government security review, a government-written contract you file with the regulator, or a certificate from an approved body. Which gate you need depends on how many people's data you move, not on where you send it. Small exporters are exempt. Several industries are walled off entirely.
The catch: The 'paperwork, then it can go' answer is only true for ordinary companies. Payment firms, credit bureaus, hospitals, genetic labs, online map services, telecom and industrial operators, and anything the government labels critical national infrastructure must keep the data in China. In those areas a copy staying behind is not optional.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. China's privacy law reaches a company with no office and no staff in China if it offers goods or services to people in China, or analyses their behaviour. There is no revenue or headcount threshold that lets you out. If you are caught this way, you must set up a dedicated office in China or name a representative there, and give the regulator their details.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general yes, once you clear the right gate — but the gate is set by volume, not by destination. China has no list of banned or approved countries. Below 100,000 people a year you can usually send data abroad with no filing at all. Above that you need a contract filed with the regulator or a certificate; above a million people, or if you hold data the state calls 'important', you need a full government security review. Then come the industry walls, which override all of this.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Three routes, and you do not get to pick freely — your volume picks for you. Route one is a government security review, run by the national internet regulator through your provincial office; an approval lasts three years and only covers the exact purpose, scope and method you declared. Route two is China's own standard contract, which you sign with the overseas recipient and file with the provincial regulator along with a risk assessment. Route three is a certificate from an accredited body, which since 1 March 2026 has a national standard behind it. You also need each person's separate, specific consent before their data goes abroad.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Cyberspace Administration of China leads, and it is fully staffed and busy. It runs a nationwide enforcement campaign every year, tests apps itself and publishes the names of the ones that fail, and puts out batches of worked enforcement cases. Police, the industry ministry and the market regulator enforce alongside it, and finance, health, mapping and securities regulators run their own rules. Fines are usually modest and paired with an order to fix things; the eye-watering penalties in the statute are rarely used.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions apply, and they pull against each other. The floor: network logs must be kept for at least six months, and accounting records have their own long minimum periods set by a national schedule. The ceiling: personal data may only be kept for the shortest time needed for the purpose you collected it for, and must be deleted once that purpose is met, the service ends, or consent is withdrawn. Where a law sets a minimum, that minimum wins over the delete duty — you keep the record and stop using it for anything else.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Three clocks, and they overlap. If you run critical national infrastructure you have ONE HOUR to report a serious incident to your supervising department and the police. Everyone else has four hours to tell the provincial internet office. On top of that, a network data incident that could harm national security or the public interest must be reported within 24 hours. You must also tell affected people immediately, by phone, text, message, email or public notice.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that ruin weekends. (1) Sending data abroad needs each person's separate, specific consent — a line buried in a global privacy notice will not do. (2) A child is anyone under 14, and their data is treated as sensitive, so you need a parent's consent and a separate set of processing rules. (3) You may not hand data stored in China to a foreign court, police force or regulator without Chinese government approval — this catches routine legal discovery and overseas audit requests. (4) You have to work out for yourself whether you hold 'important data' and report it, because the official catalogues are incomplete. (5) The widely repeated claim that all personal financial data must be stored in China does not appear where people think it does.High confidence
What's about to change?: The next twelve months are about size-based rules. A draft published on 7 August 2026 would create a heavy new tier for any company holding data on ten million people or more: store it in China, appoint a chief privacy officer, set up an outside supervision committee, publish an annual report and honour data portability requests within 30 working days. Comments closed on 7 September 2026 and it is not law yet. A companion draft going the other way would simplify life for small processors. Watch the dormant switches — several can flip with no consultation at all.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: All industries — 中华人民共和国网络安全法（2025年修正）
Payments — 非银行支付机构监督管理条例
Finance — 征信业务管理办法
Banking — 中国人民银行业务领域数据安全管理办法
Securities — 关于加强境内企业境外发行证券和上市相关保密和档案管理工作的规定
Health and social care — 国家健康医疗大数据标准、安全和服务管理办法（试行）
Mapping and location — 地图管理条例
Telecoms — 工业和信息化领域数据安全管理办法（试行）

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	SwedenChecked 18 August 2026	ChinaChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active	Yes, with paperwork Work: Very high Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Sweden has no general law forcing data to stay in the country. Personal data leaves under the ordinary European rules. But four walls override that: gambling systems must sit in Sweden, telecoms records kept for the police may never leave the European Union, classified material needs a state-to-state deal, and accounting books stay in Sweden unless you tell the tax agency.	Data can leave China, but only through one of three official gates: a government security review, a government-written contract you file with the regulator, or a certificate from an approved body. Which gate you need depends on how many people's data you move, not on where you send it. Small exporters are exempt. Several industries are walled off entirely.
The catch	The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you touch online gambling, telecoms records held for law enforcement, security-sensitive activity, detailed maps and sea-depth data, a public authority's secret files, or a Swedish company's accounting books. In those six areas Sweden is far stricter than its reputation suggests, and two of them carry prison sentences rather than fines.	The 'paperwork, then it can go' answer is only true for ordinary companies. Payment firms, credit bureaus, hospitals, genetic labs, online map services, telecom and industrial operators, and anything the government labels critical national infrastructure must keep the data in China. In those areas a copy staying behind is not optional.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. Sweden applies the European privacy rules, so a company anywhere in the world is caught if it offers goods or services to people in Sweden or watches what they do. There is no size or revenue floor to duck under. Sweden's own top-up law adds Swedish-only duties on top, and those apply to anyone processing data under Swedish law, not just Swedish companies. If you are outside Europe and caught, you normally have to name a representative inside Europe.High confidence	Yes. China's privacy law reaches a company with no office and no staff in China if it offers goods or services to people in China, or analyses their behaviour. There is no revenue or headcount threshold that lets you out. If you are caught this way, you must set up a dedicated office in China or name a representative there, and give the regulator their details.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	In general, yes. Sweden has no law that says personal data must physically stay in Sweden, and European law actually bans Sweden from imposing storage rules on non-personal data except for national security reasons. The exceptions are what matter. Online gambling systems must be placed in Sweden. Telephone and internet records that operators keep for the police may not be stored outside the European Union. Security-classified material cannot go to a foreign body without a government-to-government agreement. And a Swedish company's accounting records must be kept in Sweden unless it tells the tax agency where they are instead.High confidence	In general yes, once you clear the right gate — but the gate is set by volume, not by destination. China has no list of banned or approved countries. Below 100,000 people a year you can usually send data abroad with no filing at all. Above that you need a contract filed with the regulator or a certificate; above a million people, or if you hold data the state calls 'important', you need a full government security review. Then come the industry walls, which override all of this.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	Sweden adds nothing of its own here — it uses the European toolkit unchanged. The model is an allowlist of approved destinations, and that list is well populated: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil and about a dozen others are approved. For everywhere else you sign the European Commission's standard contract, or use group-wide rules approved by a regulator, and you write down why you think the data will still be safe. United States transfers work only if the receiving company has signed up to the European Union–United States Data Privacy Framework, and that arrangement is under legal pressure.High confidence	Three routes, and you do not get to pick freely — your volume picks for you. Route one is a government security review, run by the national internet regulator through your provincial office; an approval lasts three years and only covers the exact purpose, scope and method you declared. Route two is China's own standard contract, which you sign with the overseas recipient and file with the provincial regulator along with a risk assessment. Route three is a certificate from an accredited body, which since 1 March 2026 has a national standard behind it. You also need each person's separate, specific consent before their data goes abroad.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	The main privacy regulator is the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, and it is fully staffed and working. It published supervisory decisions in May, June and July 2026, including a reprimand to a large security company over filming its own staff, and in June 2026 it was also made Sweden's market surveillance authority for the European artificial intelligence rules. Other regulators matter just as much in their own lanes: the financial supervisor, the telecoms and post authority, the gambling authority, the Security Service and the Armed Forces.High confidence	The Cyberspace Administration of China leads, and it is fully staffed and busy. It runs a nationwide enforcement campaign every year, tests apps itself and publishes the names of the ones that fail, and puts out batches of worked enforcement cases. Police, the industry ministry and the market regulator enforce alongside it, and finance, health, mapping and securities regulators run their own rules. Fines are usually modest and paired with an order to fix things; the eye-watering penalties in the statute are rarely used.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	Sweden has a hard floor and a soft ceiling, and they pull in opposite directions. You must keep company accounting records for seven years after the end of the year they relate to, and patient records for at least ten years after the last entry. Against that, European privacy law says you must delete personal data once you no longer need it. Sweden resolves the clash the same way most of Europe does: a specific legal duty to keep something beats the general duty to delete it, so you keep it, lock it down and use it for nothing else.High confidence	Both directions apply, and they pull against each other. The floor: network logs must be kept for at least six months, and accounting records have their own long minimum periods set by a national schedule. The ceiling: personal data may only be kept for the shortest time needed for the purpose you collected it for, and must be deleted once that purpose is met, the service ends, or consent is withdrawn. Where a law sets a minimum, that minimum wins over the delete duty — you keep the record and stop using it for anything else.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count at least three clocks, and they do not agree. For a personal data breach you have 72 hours to tell the privacy regulator, and you must tell the affected people without undue delay if the risk to them is high. Since 15 January 2026, organisations in important sectors must send an early warning to their cybersecurity supervisor within 24 hours of noticing a significant incident, then a fuller report within 72 hours — but trust service providers get only 24 hours for the full report. Financial firms have a fourth clock under the European digital resilience rules. The 24-hour warning is the one that catches people out.High confidence	Three clocks, and they overlap. If you run critical national infrastructure you have ONE HOUR to report a serious incident to your supervising department and the police. Everyone else has four hours to tell the provincial internet office. On top of that, a network data incident that could harm national security or the public interest must be reported within 24 hours. You must also tell affected people immediately, by phone, text, message, email or public notice.High confidence
What's the trap?	Five things that are not in any summary. One: a child can consent from age 13 in Sweden, the youngest age Europe allows, so a global default of 16 is wrong here. Two: you may only use a person's Swedish identity number without their consent when it is clearly justified — a Swedish-only rule with no European equivalent. Three: anything you send to a Swedish public authority can become a public document that any member of the public, including a competitor or a journalist, can demand a copy of. Four: giving a supplier access to a public authority's secret files is allowed only for purely technical processing or storage, and only if it is not inappropriate in the circumstances — the ordinary supplier contract is not enough. Five: mapping and sea-depth data is criminal law, not paperwork — spreading it without a permit can mean up to a year in prison.High confidence	Five things that ruin weekends. (1) Sending data abroad needs each person's separate, specific consent — a line buried in a global privacy notice will not do. (2) A child is anyone under 14, and their data is treated as sensitive, so you need a parent's consent and a separate set of processing rules. (3) You may not hand data stored in China to a foreign court, police force or regulator without Chinese government approval — this catches routine legal discovery and overseas audit requests. (4) You have to work out for yourself whether you hold 'important data' and report it, because the official catalogues are incomplete. (5) The widely repeated claim that all personal financial data must be stored in China does not appear where people think it does.High confidence
What's about to change?	Two dated items. On 1 January 2027 a new law on the resilience of critical operators is proposed to start, covering eleven sectors and adding another 24-hour incident report. Also on 12 January 2027, European rules make it illegal for cloud providers to charge you to move your data out. Watch the government's national cloud policy, adopted on 28 May 2026: today it is only advice with no penalties, but it is the obvious vehicle for a future rule that public bodies must use European providers.High confidence	The next twelve months are about size-based rules. A draft published on 7 August 2026 would create a heavy new tier for any company holding data on ten million people or more: store it in China, appoint a chief privacy officer, set up an outside supervision committee, publish an annual report and honour data portability requests within 30 working days. Comments closed on 7 September 2026 and it is not law yet. A companion draft going the other way would simplify life for small processors. Watch the dormant switches — several can flip with no consultation at all.High confidence
Hardest industry wall	Telecoms — Förordning (2022:511) om elektronisk kommunikation, 9 kap. 4 § Online gaming — Spellagen (2018:1138), 16 kap. 2 § Defence — Säkerhetsskyddslagen (2018:585) och Säkerhetsskyddsförordningen (2021:955)	All industries — 中华人民共和国网络安全法（2025年修正） Payments — 非银行支付机构监督管理条例 Finance — 征信业务管理办法 Banking — 中国人民银行业务领域数据安全管理办法 Securities — 关于加强境内企业境外发行证券和上市相关保密和档案管理工作的规定 Health and social care — 国家健康医疗大数据标准、安全和服务管理办法（试行） Mapping and location — 地图管理条例 Telecoms — 工业和信息化领域数据安全管理办法（试行）