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Countries

SloveniaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Slovenia has no general rule that data must stay in the country. It runs on the European rulebook: send data abroad once you have the right paperwork. Three things break that. The company running the new national health record system may not store data outside Slovenia. Government bodies may cloud only their least sensitive data. And working-time records must sit at the Slovenian workplace.
The catch: The easy answer stops being true in four places. First, health: the state-owned company running the central health information system is forbidden by law from transferring or storing personal data outside Slovenian territory, and every healthcare provider in the country must plug into that system. Second, government: a state administration body may only use a public cloud for the lowest security tiers of information, and only after the ministry approves in writing. Third, employment: the record of working time and the documents behind it must be kept at the employer's registered office or at the place where the worker actually works. Fourth, gambling: only a joint-stock company registered in Slovenia can hold a concession, and its system must be wired into the tax authority's own system. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, telecoms and mapping have no storage-location rule that we could find.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. Slovenia's privacy rules reach a company with no office there. If you offer goods or services to people in Slovenia, or watch what they do online, the European rules apply to you and Slovenia's own privacy act applies alongside them. There is no size or revenue threshold that lets you out. A company with no office anywhere in Europe must appoint a written representative inside Europe.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general yes, with paperwork — Slovenia adds no national storage-location rule of its own on top of the European regime. But four industries break that answer, and one of them is a hard wall. Health is the big one: the state company that runs Slovenia's central health record system is banned outright from storing or sending personal data outside Slovenia, and every healthcare provider must connect to that system. Government cloud, employment records and gambling each carry their own restriction.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Slovenia uses the European model, and it works like an approved-destinations list with escape hatches. Data may go to a country the European Commission has approved. If the destination is not approved, you can still send data by signing the Commission's standard contract, using approved group-wide rules, or relying on one of a few narrow exceptions. Slovenia adds nothing of its own. The old Slovenian system, where the Information Commissioner had to authorise each export, was scrapped when the current privacy act arrived in January 2023.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Information Commissioner, and it is genuinely working. In 2025 it opened 464 inspection cases from complaints plus 102 more from inspection reports, issued 134 enforcement decisions, fined in 89 of them, gave warnings in 45, and handed down what it calls its largest fine since the European rules began. It handled 153 breach reports. It is small: one commissioner and 53 staff at the end of 2025, and it says openly that it does not have enough people. Cybersecurity is enforced separately by a government office set up for the job.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions, and the floors are long. A patient's medical file must be kept for ten years after the patient dies, and other basic medical records for fifteen years. Records of who touched personal data in a computer system must be kept for two years after the end of the year, and up to five if the risk is high. Working-time records must be kept at the Slovenian workplace. In the other direction the European rule applies: delete personal data once the purpose is spent.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count three clocks, not one. A personal data breach goes to the Information Commissioner within 72 hours. A serious cyber incident, if you are an essential or important organisation, goes to the government security office immediately and in any case within 24 hours as an early warning, then a full report within 72 hours, then a final report within one month. Telecoms operators have their own duties on top. Missing the 24-hour warning is the most common failure, because it lands while you are still working out what happened.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that catch people out. A child can consent at 15 in Slovenia, not 16 — one year younger than the European default. Fingerprints and face scans are banned in the private sector unless a law allows them and the Commissioner approves. Every access to a covered database must be logged and the log kept two years. Leaking personal data you got through your job is a crime, not just a fine. And working-time records must physically be at the Slovenian workplace, which no cloud contract fixes.High confidence
What's about to change?: Two dates in the next twelve months matter most. On 19 December 2026 the cybersecurity duties bite for organisations newly captured by Slovenia's 2025 Information Security Act — registration, security measures and the incident clocks. On 12 January 2027 the European Data Act bans all cloud switching and data export fees. Behind both sits the roll-out of the national health record system, whose ban on storing data outside Slovenia is already law but whose timetable we could not pin down.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Health and social care — Zakon o digitalizaciji zdravstva (ZDigZ)
All industries — Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o evidencah na področju dela in socialne varnosti (ZEPDSV-A)

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	SloveniaChecked 18 August 2026	HungaryChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active	Yes, with paperwork Work: High Enforcement: Active
In one paragraph	Slovenia has no general rule that data must stay in the country. It runs on the European rulebook: send data abroad once you have the right paperwork. Three things break that. The company running the new national health record system may not store data outside Slovenia. Government bodies may cloud only their least sensitive data. And working-time records must sit at the Slovenian workplace.	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 easy answer stops being true in four places. First, health: the state-owned company running the central health information system is forbidden by law from transferring or storing personal data outside Slovenian territory, and every healthcare provider in the country must plug into that system. Second, government: a state administration body may only use a public cloud for the lowest security tiers of information, and only after the ministry approves in writing. Third, employment: the record of working time and the documents behind it must be kept at the employer's registered office or at the place where the worker actually works. Fourth, gambling: only a joint-stock company registered in Slovenia can hold a concession, and its system must be wired into the tax authority's own system. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, telecoms and mapping have no storage-location rule that we could find.	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. Slovenia's privacy rules reach a company with no office there. If you offer goods or services to people in Slovenia, or watch what they do online, the European rules apply to you and Slovenia's own privacy act applies alongside them. There is no size or revenue threshold that lets you out. A company with no office anywhere in Europe must appoint a written representative inside Europe.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?	In general yes, with paperwork — Slovenia adds no national storage-location rule of its own on top of the European regime. But four industries break that answer, and one of them is a hard wall. Health is the big one: the state company that runs Slovenia's central health record system is banned outright from storing or sending personal data outside Slovenia, and every healthcare provider must connect to that system. Government cloud, employment records and gambling each carry their own restriction.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?	Slovenia uses the European model, and it works like an approved-destinations list with escape hatches. Data may go to a country the European Commission has approved. If the destination is not approved, you can still send data by signing the Commission's standard contract, using approved group-wide rules, or relying on one of a few narrow exceptions. Slovenia adds nothing of its own. The old Slovenian system, where the Information Commissioner had to authorise each export, was scrapped when the current privacy act arrived in January 2023.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 Information Commissioner, and it is genuinely working. In 2025 it opened 464 inspection cases from complaints plus 102 more from inspection reports, issued 134 enforcement decisions, fined in 89 of them, gave warnings in 45, and handed down what it calls its largest fine since the European rules began. It handled 153 breach reports. It is small: one commissioner and 53 staff at the end of 2025, and it says openly that it does not have enough people. Cybersecurity is enforced separately by a government office set up for the job.High confidence	The National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, known by its Hungarian initials NAIH, and it is genuinely working. It has published decisions right through to May 2026, released its report on 2025 activity on 30 March 2026, and issued public statements in July and August 2026. Its president is Dr Attila Peterfalvi. The catch is size, not activity: a typical fine is small — two million forint, roughly six thousand dollars, in an April 2025 data-security case.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	Both directions, and the floors are long. A patient's medical file must be kept for ten years after the patient dies, and other basic medical records for fifteen years. Records of who touched personal data in a computer system must be kept for two years after the end of the year, and up to five if the risk is high. Working-time records must be kept at the Slovenian workplace. In the other direction the European rule applies: delete personal data once the purpose is spent.High confidence	Hungary pushes hard in both directions. The floor is long: accounting records and vouchers must be kept for eight years, and health records for decades — the health data law works in periods of thirty years and more. The ceiling is the European rule that you delete personal data once the purpose is spent. When the two collide, the specific statutory keep-period wins, so a deletion request does not empty your ledgers or a hospital's files.Medium confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count three clocks, not one. A personal data breach goes to the Information Commissioner within 72 hours. A serious cyber incident, if you are an essential or important organisation, goes to the government security office immediately and in any case within 24 hours as an early warning, then a full report within 72 hours, then a final report within one month. Telecoms operators have their own duties on top. Missing the 24-hour warning is the most common failure, because it lands while you are still working out what happened.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 catch people out. A child can consent at 15 in Slovenia, not 16 — one year younger than the European default. Fingerprints and face scans are banned in the private sector unless a law allows them and the Commissioner approves. Every access to a covered database must be logged and the log kept two years. Leaking personal data you got through your job is a crime, not just a fine. And working-time records must physically be at the Slovenian workplace, which no cloud contract fixes.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?	Two dates in the next twelve months matter most. On 19 December 2026 the cybersecurity duties bite for organisations newly captured by Slovenia's 2025 Information Security Act — registration, security measures and the incident clocks. On 12 January 2027 the European Data Act bans all cloud switching and data export fees. Behind both sits the roll-out of the national health record system, whose ban on storing data outside Slovenia is already law but whose timetable we could not pin down.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	Health and social care — Zakon o digitalizaciji zdravstva (ZDigZ) All industries — Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o evidencah na področju dela in socialne varnosti (ZEPDSV-A)	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. §