Compare countries

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

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

FranceChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Aggressive

In one paragraph: France follows the European rule: data may leave, but only once the right paperwork is in place. France then adds hard walls of its own. Health records must be stored inside Europe. Online gambling records must sit on a machine in mainland France. From 1 September 2026 the invoicing platform every French business must use has to run entirely from inside Europe.
The catch: "France has no local storage rule" is true for an ordinary business and false the moment you touch health data, online gambling, electronic invoicing or a government contract involving sensitive state data. In those four areas France is among the strictest countries in Europe. Since March 2026 the health rule sits in a decree, not just a certification standard, so it now binds the customer as well as the supplier.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. France reaches a company with no office in the country. European law already applies to anyone offering goods or services to people in Europe. On top of that, France's own privacy law says its national rules apply as soon as the person concerned lives in France, even when the company is based somewhere else. There is no size or revenue threshold that lets you escape.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: For an ordinary business, yes, with paperwork: the European transfer rules apply and nothing extra is added. But four French sectors override that. Health records must be stored inside Europe and nowhere else. Online gambling records must be archived in real time on hardware in mainland France. Electronic invoicing platforms must run their whole system from inside Europe. And sensitive state data must sit on a cloud that the French cyber agency has certified as beyond the reach of foreign authorities.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: The model is an approved-list one, run from Brussels rather than Paris. Data may go to a country the European Commission has formally approved, or anywhere else if you sign the official standard contract and write down why you think the data will still be safe. The list of approved countries is full, not empty: it includes the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Brazil and about a dozen others, plus American companies that have signed up to the transatlantic framework. France adds no separate national approval step.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The privacy regulator is the CNIL, and it is one of the busiest in Europe. In 2025 alone it issued 83 penalties totalling about 487 million euros (roughly 530 million dollars), plus 143 formal warnings. It is still fining in 2026: 5 million euros against the national employment agency in January and 5 million against a health data company in May. Separate regulators run the sector walls, and all of them are staffed and working.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: There is a floor and a ceiling and they pull in opposite directions. You must keep accounting books and supporting documents for ten years, tax records for six, employment contracts and pay records for five, and telephone and internet subscriber identity data for five. In the other direction, European law says you must delete personal data once you no longer need it. France resolves the clash the same way most of Europe does: the legal minimum wins, but only for the specific documents the law names, and only for as long as it names.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count the clocks, because France has at least four and they run at different speeds. Every organisation has 72 hours to tell the CNIL about a personal data breach. Telephone and internet providers have only 24 hours. Hospitals and clinics must report a serious computer security incident to their regional health agency immediately. Banks, insurers and investment firms have their own European deadlines: an initial report within 4 hours of classifying a major incident and no later than 24 hours after they notice it.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that are not in the summary. (1) Breaking the privacy law in France is a crime, not just a fine: sending data out of Europe unlawfully carries up to five years in prison and a 300,000 euro fine (about 330,000 dollars), and it attaches to people, not only companies. (2) A child is anyone under 15 for consent, not 13 or 16. (3) A 2023 law setting a social media age of 15 is printed in the statute book but has never come into force and cannot be enforced. (4) Handing documents to a foreign court or regulator can itself be a criminal offence in France. (5) Cookies are policed separately from the rest of privacy law, so a foreign company cannot hide behind its lead European regulator.High confidence
What's about to change?: Four dates in the next twelve months. 1 September 2026: every French business must be able to send and receive invoices through an approved platform, and those platforms must run entirely from inside Europe. Around 27 September 2026: the second phase of the health data hosting decree starts. 21 October 2026: the order forcing telephone and internet companies to keep everyone's connection records for a year expires unless the Prime Minister renews it. 12 January 2027: cloud providers across Europe must drop switching and data export fees to zero.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Health and social care — Decret n° 2026-209 du 24 mars 2026 portant modification de certaines dispositions du code de la sante publique relatives a l'hebergement de donnees de sante a caractere personnel
Government — Decret n° 2026-272 du 14 avril 2026 relatif a la protection des donnees d'une sensibilite particuliere des administrations, operateurs et groupements d'interet public de l'Etat traitees par un service d'informatique en nuage fourni par un prestataire prive
All industries — Immatriculation des plateformes agreees (ex plateformes de dematerialisation partenaires) - facturation electronique
Online gaming — Article 31 de la loi n° 2010-476 du 12 mai 2010 relative a l'ouverture a la concurrence et a la regulation du secteur des jeux d'argent et de hasard en ligne

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	SlovakiaChecked 18 August 2026	FranceChecked 18 August 2026
The three ratings	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Active	Depends on your industry Work: High Enforcement: Aggressive
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.	France follows the European rule: data may leave, but only once the right paperwork is in place. France then adds hard walls of its own. Health records must be stored inside Europe. Online gambling records must sit on a machine in mainland France. From 1 September 2026 the invoicing platform every French business must use has to run entirely from inside Europe.
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.	"France has no local storage rule" is true for an ordinary business and false the moment you touch health data, online gambling, electronic invoicing or a government contract involving sensitive state data. In those four areas France is among the strictest countries in Europe. Since March 2026 the health rule sits in a decree, not just a certification standard, so it now binds the customer as well as the supplier.
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. France reaches a company with no office in the country. European law already applies to anyone offering goods or services to people in Europe. On top of that, France's own privacy law says its national rules apply as soon as the person concerned lives in France, even when the company is based somewhere else. There is no size or revenue threshold that lets you escape.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	For an ordinary business, yes, with paperwork: the European transfer rules apply and nothing extra is added. But four French sectors override that. Health records must be stored inside Europe and nowhere else. Online gambling records must be archived in real time on hardware in mainland France. Electronic invoicing platforms must run their whole system from inside Europe. And sensitive state data must sit on a cloud that the French cyber agency has certified as beyond the reach of foreign authorities.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	The model is an approved-list one, run from Brussels rather than Paris. Data may go to a country the European Commission has formally approved, or anywhere else if you sign the official standard contract and write down why you think the data will still be safe. The list of approved countries is full, not empty: it includes the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Brazil and about a dozen others, plus American companies that have signed up to the transatlantic framework. France adds no separate national approval step.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 privacy regulator is the CNIL, and it is one of the busiest in Europe. In 2025 alone it issued 83 penalties totalling about 487 million euros (roughly 530 million dollars), plus 143 formal warnings. It is still fining in 2026: 5 million euros against the national employment agency in January and 5 million against a health data company in May. Separate regulators run the sector walls, and all of them are staffed and working.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	There is a floor and a ceiling and they pull in opposite directions. You must keep accounting books and supporting documents for ten years, tax records for six, employment contracts and pay records for five, and telephone and internet subscriber identity data for five. In the other direction, European law says you must delete personal data once you no longer need it. France resolves the clash the same way most of Europe does: the legal minimum wins, but only for the specific documents the law names, and only for as long as it names.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	Count the clocks, because France has at least four and they run at different speeds. Every organisation has 72 hours to tell the CNIL about a personal data breach. Telephone and internet providers have only 24 hours. Hospitals and clinics must report a serious computer security incident to their regional health agency immediately. Banks, insurers and investment firms have their own European deadlines: an initial report within 4 hours of classifying a major incident and no later than 24 hours after they notice it.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 are not in the summary. (1) Breaking the privacy law in France is a crime, not just a fine: sending data out of Europe unlawfully carries up to five years in prison and a 300,000 euro fine (about 330,000 dollars), and it attaches to people, not only companies. (2) A child is anyone under 15 for consent, not 13 or 16. (3) A 2023 law setting a social media age of 15 is printed in the statute book but has never come into force and cannot be enforced. (4) Handing documents to a foreign court or regulator can itself be a criminal offence in France. (5) Cookies are policed separately from the rest of privacy law, so a foreign company cannot hide behind its lead European regulator.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	Four dates in the next twelve months. 1 September 2026: every French business must be able to send and receive invoices through an approved platform, and those platforms must run entirely from inside Europe. Around 27 September 2026: the second phase of the health data hosting decree starts. 21 October 2026: the order forcing telephone and internet companies to keep everyone's connection records for a year expires unless the Prime Minister renews it. 12 January 2027: cloud providers across Europe must drop switching and data export fees to zero.Medium 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	Health and social care — Decret n° 2026-209 du 24 mars 2026 portant modification de certaines dispositions du code de la sante publique relatives a l'hebergement de donnees de sante a caractere personnel Government — Decret n° 2026-272 du 14 avril 2026 relatif a la protection des donnees d'une sensibilite particuliere des administrations, operateurs et groupements d'interet public de l'Etat traitees par un service d'informatique en nuage fourni par un prestataire prive All industries — Immatriculation des plateformes agreees (ex plateformes de dematerialisation partenaires) - facturation electronique Online gaming — Article 31 de la loi n° 2010-476 du 12 mai 2010 relative a l'ouverture a la concurrence et a la regulation du secteur des jeux d'argent et de hasard en ligne