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Countries

SlovakiaChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Slovakia 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 areas break that rule. Online gambling servers must sit on Slovak soil. The most sensitive government data must stay in a Slovak data centre. And anyone who takes aerial survey pictures of Slovakia must hand a copy to a defence ministry archive.
The catch: The easy answer stops being true in three places. First, online gambling: the operator's server must be physically in Slovakia, with no European Economic Area alternative. Second, government cloud: a public body handling the top security category of data may only use a service that stores and processes it inside Slovakia, in a data centre within reach of the Slovak state. Third, mapping: primary aerial survey imagery and published maps must be deposited with Slovak state archives, including one run by the Ministry of Defence. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, health and telecoms have no storage-location rule that we could find.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. A company with no office in Slovakia is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Slovakia, or watches what they do online. There is no minimum size, headcount or revenue below which you are safe. If you have no office anywhere in the European Union, you must name a written representative inside the Union, and you can put that person in any member state where your customers are — it does not have to be Slovakia.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes — with the standard European paperwork. Nothing in Slovak law says personal data must be kept in Slovakia, and the law says so almost in as many words: it applies to a Slovak company whether it processes data inside or outside the country. But three specific activities do force data to stay. Online gambling operators must put their server in Slovakia. The top security tier of government data must stay in a Slovak data centre. And aerial survey imagery of Slovakia must be handed to a state archive.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Slovakia uses the European model, and it is an allowlist. Data may go to a country the European Commission has approved, or to anywhere else if you sign the Commission's standard contract, use approved group-wide rules, or fit one of a few narrow exceptions. The approved list is real and populated — it includes the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada for commercial bodies, and the United States only for companies signed up to the transatlantic framework. Slovakia adds nothing of its own on top.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Office for Personal Data Protection of the Slovak Republic. It is real, staffed and busy. In 2025 it issued 542 final fines totalling about 468,000 euros (roughly $510,000) and actually collected about 411,000 euros of that — a very high number of fines but a very small average, about 860 euros each. It has around 60 staff and got 20 extra posts in 2025. Cybersecurity incidents go to a separate body, the National Security Authority.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is no single retention rule. The general privacy rule is to delete when you no longer need the data. Against that sit long minimum-keeping duties: ten years for accounts and financial statements, and up to one hundred years after death for entries in the national health registers. Telecom companies keep far less than most people assume — Slovakia scrapped blanket call-record retention after its Constitutional Court struck it down, so operators only retain what a court order covers.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: There are two clocks and they are different. A personal data breach goes to the privacy authority within 72 hours of you becoming aware of it, and to the affected people without undue delay if the risk to them is high. A cybersecurity incident at a regulated organisation goes to the National Security Authority twice: a first warning within 24 hours, then a fuller report within 72 hours. If you are both, you file both, to two different bodies.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. Public bodies can be fined the full amount, with no discount. Mishandling personal data you got through your job is a crime, not just a fine. The age of consent for online services is 16, not 13. The rule on dead people's data changed today. And the gambling server rule has no European workaround.High confidence
What's about to change?: The whole national privacy law is being replaced by two new laws — one general, one for police and courts — but they are still bills and have no legal effect. Act 18/2018 was amended today, 18 August 2026, mostly to remove dead people from its scope. Public bodies face a bigger data-registration duty from 1 January 2027, and all cloud switching and data export fees across Europe must drop to zero by 12 January 2027.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Online gaming — Zákon č. 30/2019 Z. z. o hazardných hrách a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov, § 14 ods. 21 a 22
Government — Metodické usmernenie č. 020775/2025/oSBATA z 11. 4. 2025 pre proces zaradenia cloudovej služby do katalógu vládnych cloudových služieb, vydané podľa § 24a zákona č. 95/2019 Z. z.
Mapping and location — Zákon Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky č. 215/1995 Z. z. o geodézii a kartografii

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	SlovakiaChecked 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	Slovakia 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 areas break that rule. Online gambling servers must sit on Slovak soil. The most sensitive government data must stay in a Slovak data centre. And anyone who takes aerial survey pictures of Slovakia must hand a copy to a defence ministry archive.	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 easy answer stops being true in three places. First, online gambling: the operator's server must be physically in Slovakia, with no European Economic Area alternative. Second, government cloud: a public body handling the top security category of data may only use a service that stores and processes it inside Slovakia, in a data centre within reach of the Slovak state. Third, mapping: primary aerial survey imagery and published maps must be deposited with Slovak state archives, including one run by the Ministry of Defence. Banking, payments, insurance, securities, health and telecoms have no storage-location rule that we could find.	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. A company with no office in Slovakia is still caught if it offers goods or services to people in Slovakia, or watches what they do online. There is no minimum size, headcount or revenue below which you are safe. If you have no office anywhere in the European Union, you must name a written representative inside the Union, and you can put that person in any member state where your customers are — it does not have to be Slovakia.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 — with the standard European paperwork. Nothing in Slovak law says personal data must be kept in Slovakia, and the law says so almost in as many words: it applies to a Slovak company whether it processes data inside or outside the country. But three specific activities do force data to stay. Online gambling operators must put their server in Slovakia. The top security tier of government data must stay in a Slovak data centre. And aerial survey imagery of Slovakia must be handed to a state archive.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?	Slovakia uses the European model, and it is an allowlist. Data may go to a country the European Commission has approved, or to anywhere else if you sign the Commission's standard contract, use approved group-wide rules, or fit one of a few narrow exceptions. The approved list is real and populated — it includes the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada for commercial bodies, and the United States only for companies signed up to the transatlantic framework. Slovakia adds nothing of its own on top.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 Office for Personal Data Protection of the Slovak Republic. It is real, staffed and busy. In 2025 it issued 542 final fines totalling about 468,000 euros (roughly $510,000) and actually collected about 411,000 euros of that — a very high number of fines but a very small average, about 860 euros each. It has around 60 staff and got 20 extra posts in 2025. Cybersecurity incidents go to a separate body, the National Security Authority.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?	There is no single retention rule. The general privacy rule is to delete when you no longer need the data. Against that sit long minimum-keeping duties: ten years for accounts and financial statements, and up to one hundred years after death for entries in the national health registers. Telecom companies keep far less than most people assume — Slovakia scrapped blanket call-record retention after its Constitutional Court struck it down, so operators only retain what a court order covers.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?	There are two clocks and they are different. A personal data breach goes to the privacy authority within 72 hours of you becoming aware of it, and to the affected people without undue delay if the risk to them is high. A cybersecurity incident at a regulated organisation goes to the National Security Authority twice: a first warning within 24 hours, then a fuller report within 72 hours. If you are both, you file both, to two different bodies.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 the summary. Public bodies can be fined the full amount, with no discount. Mishandling personal data you got through your job is a crime, not just a fine. The age of consent for online services is 16, not 13. The rule on dead people's data changed today. And the gambling server rule has no European workaround.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?	The whole national privacy law is being replaced by two new laws — one general, one for police and courts — but they are still bills and have no legal effect. Act 18/2018 was amended today, 18 August 2026, mostly to remove dead people from its scope. Public bodies face a bigger data-registration duty from 1 January 2027, and all cloud switching and data export fees across Europe must drop to zero by 12 January 2027.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	Online gaming — Zákon č. 30/2019 Z. z. o hazardných hrách a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov, § 14 ods. 21 a 22 Government — Metodické usmernenie č. 020775/2025/oSBATA z 11. 4. 2025 pre proces zaradenia cloudovej služby do katalógu vládnych cloudových služieb, vydané podľa § 24a zákona č. 95/2019 Z. z. Mapping and location — Zákon Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky č. 215/1995 Z. z. o geodézii a kartografii	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）