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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)

MexicoChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: MediumEnforcement: Waking up

In one paragraph: Mexico's general privacy law does not care where you store data. There is no approved-country list, no standard contract to sign and no permission to ask for. You need the right wording in your privacy notice and, usually, the person's consent. The rules that actually pin data to Mexico live in banking, money-laundering and tax law, not in the privacy law.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops the moment you are a bank, a stockbroker, a crowdfunding platform, an insurer or a phone company. Banks need written permission from the banking regulator before any processing happens abroad. Separately, anti-money-laundering law and tax law require many ordinary businesses to keep their records at a Mexican address for ten and five years. Those rules bind companies that have never read a privacy law.
Does this apply to me?: Probably yes, but Mexico is unusually vague about it. The privacy law says only that it applies across Mexican territory. It does not spell out when it reaches a company based abroad. The old rulebook did say the law caught a foreign company that used equipment or systems located in Mexico, and let that company appoint a local representative instead of opening an office. That old rulebook belonged to a law that was scrapped in March 2025, so its status today is genuinely unclear. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below.Medium confidence
Can the data leave the country?: Under the general privacy law, yes, and with very little paperwork. Mexico has no list of approved countries and no list of banned ones. Sending data to a company abroad is treated exactly like sending it to a company down the road: say so in your privacy notice, get the person's consent unless one of seven exceptions applies, and pass the privacy notice on to whoever receives the data. Handing data to your own supplier who only follows your instructions is not even counted as a transfer. Five sectors override this, and in three of them the override is severe.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Nothing needs approval and no list exists in either direction. The model is simply unrestricted: any destination is allowed. What you need is a privacy notice that names the transfer and carries a clause where the person accepts or refuses it, plus that person's consent unless one of seven legal exceptions covers you. Because there is no list to populate, the government cannot make this stricter by adding a country. It would take a new law or a new regulation.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: Mexico abolished its independent privacy regulator. The National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Data Protection was wound up in March 2025 and its staff, files and cases were moved into a government ministry, the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Ministry. So the referee is now part of the government rather than independent of it. The ministry is staffed, but the law says the detailed procedure for complaints, inspections and fines will be set out in a regulation, and that regulation still has not been published. Financial regulators, by contrast, are visibly active and update their rulebooks almost monthly.Medium confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is no single retention period. The privacy law says delete data once it is no longer needed, after a blocking period equal to the time limit for suing over the relationship. One hard ceiling is written into the law: information about someone breaking a contract must be erased six years after the default. The floors are longer and come from other laws. Tax records must be kept five years and their supporting documents must be available at your Mexican tax address. Anti-money-laundering records must be kept ten years at an address you register with the Finance Ministry. Phone companies keep call and location records for two years. Where a floor and a ceiling clash, the floor wins, because the privacy law lets you keep data to meet a legal duty.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There are at least three clocks and they do not agree. Under the general privacy law you must tell the affected people immediately if a breach significantly harms their money or their reputation, and there is no duty to tell the regulator at all. Banks face a much tighter set: tell the banking regulator immediately, tell affected customers within forty-eight hours, file a full report within five working days, and send a remediation plan within fifteen working days of the incident ending. Phone companies must hand requested records to the authorities within twenty-four hours and keep a team available every hour of every day. Mexico has no general cyber-incident reporting law that catches everyone.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things catch people out. Every private business in Mexico is now legally required to ask customers for their national population ID number. Anti-money-laundering rules force many ordinary businesses to keep ten years of records at a Mexican address, which quietly rules out a pure foreign cloud setup. Mishandling data can put a person in prison, not just cost a company money. Banks must get written permission before any processing happens abroad, and that includes routine cloud hosting. And the rulebook the privacy law keeps pointing at does not exist.High confidence
What's about to change?: The biggest thing coming is a regulation that is already overdue. The privacy law repeatedly says a rulebook will set the deadlines for complaints, inspections and fines, and the government missed its own June 2025 deadline to publish it. When it lands it could change how enforcement works overnight, with no consultation. Health law was changed in January 2026 to put telehealth on a statutory footing, and the biometric national ID is still being rolled out. The dangerous powers are the ones the government already holds rather than any bill in parliament.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Payments — Disposiciones de carácter general aplicables a las instituciones de tecnología financiera, artículos 85 a 87
Finance — Ley Federal para la Prevención e Identificación de Operaciones con Recursos de Procedencia Ilícita, artículos 15 y 18
All industries — Código Fiscal de la Federación, artículos 28 y 30
Telecoms — Ley en Materia de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión, artículo 183

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	SloveniaChecked 18 August 2026	MexicoChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active	Depends on your industry Work: Medium Enforcement: Waking up
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.	Mexico's general privacy law does not care where you store data. There is no approved-country list, no standard contract to sign and no permission to ask for. You need the right wording in your privacy notice and, usually, the person's consent. The rules that actually pin data to Mexico live in banking, money-laundering and tax law, not in the privacy law.
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.	The relaxed headline stops the moment you are a bank, a stockbroker, a crowdfunding platform, an insurer or a phone company. Banks need written permission from the banking regulator before any processing happens abroad. Separately, anti-money-laundering law and tax law require many ordinary businesses to keep their records at a Mexican address for ten and five years. Those rules bind companies that have never read a privacy law.
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	Probably yes, but Mexico is unusually vague about it. The privacy law says only that it applies across Mexican territory. It does not spell out when it reaches a company based abroad. The old rulebook did say the law caught a foreign company that used equipment or systems located in Mexico, and let that company appoint a local representative instead of opening an office. That old rulebook belonged to a law that was scrapped in March 2025, so its status today is genuinely unclear. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below.Medium 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	Under the general privacy law, yes, and with very little paperwork. Mexico has no list of approved countries and no list of banned ones. Sending data to a company abroad is treated exactly like sending it to a company down the road: say so in your privacy notice, get the person's consent unless one of seven exceptions applies, and pass the privacy notice on to whoever receives the data. Handing data to your own supplier who only follows your instructions is not even counted as a transfer. Five sectors override this, and in three of them the override is severe.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	Nothing needs approval and no list exists in either direction. The model is simply unrestricted: any destination is allowed. What you need is a privacy notice that names the transfer and carries a clause where the person accepts or refuses it, plus that person's consent unless one of seven legal exceptions covers you. Because there is no list to populate, the government cannot make this stricter by adding a country. It would take a new law or a new regulation.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	Mexico abolished its independent privacy regulator. The National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Data Protection was wound up in March 2025 and its staff, files and cases were moved into a government ministry, the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Ministry. So the referee is now part of the government rather than independent of it. The ministry is staffed, but the law says the detailed procedure for complaints, inspections and fines will be set out in a regulation, and that regulation still has not been published. Financial regulators, by contrast, are visibly active and update their rulebooks almost monthly.Medium 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	There is no single retention period. The privacy law says delete data once it is no longer needed, after a blocking period equal to the time limit for suing over the relationship. One hard ceiling is written into the law: information about someone breaking a contract must be erased six years after the default. The floors are longer and come from other laws. Tax records must be kept five years and their supporting documents must be available at your Mexican tax address. Anti-money-laundering records must be kept ten years at an address you register with the Finance Ministry. Phone companies keep call and location records for two years. Where a floor and a ceiling clash, the floor wins, because the privacy law lets you keep data to meet a legal duty.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	There are at least three clocks and they do not agree. Under the general privacy law you must tell the affected people immediately if a breach significantly harms their money or their reputation, and there is no duty to tell the regulator at all. Banks face a much tighter set: tell the banking regulator immediately, tell affected customers within forty-eight hours, file a full report within five working days, and send a remediation plan within fifteen working days of the incident ending. Phone companies must hand requested records to the authorities within twenty-four hours and keep a team available every hour of every day. Mexico has no general cyber-incident reporting law that catches everyone.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	Five things catch people out. Every private business in Mexico is now legally required to ask customers for their national population ID number. Anti-money-laundering rules force many ordinary businesses to keep ten years of records at a Mexican address, which quietly rules out a pure foreign cloud setup. Mishandling data can put a person in prison, not just cost a company money. Banks must get written permission before any processing happens abroad, and that includes routine cloud hosting. And the rulebook the privacy law keeps pointing at does not exist.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	The biggest thing coming is a regulation that is already overdue. The privacy law repeatedly says a rulebook will set the deadlines for complaints, inspections and fines, and the government missed its own June 2025 deadline to publish it. When it lands it could change how enforcement works overnight, with no consultation. Health law was changed in January 2026 to put telehealth on a statutory footing, and the biometric national ID is still being rolled out. The dangerous powers are the ones the government already holds rather than any bill in parliament.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)	Payments — Disposiciones de carácter general aplicables a las instituciones de tecnología financiera, artículos 85 a 87 Finance — Ley Federal para la Prevención e Identificación de Operaciones con Recursos de Procedencia Ilícita, artículos 15 y 18 All industries — Código Fiscal de la Federación, artículos 28 y 30 Telecoms — Ley en Materia de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión, artículo 183