Compare countries

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

Countries

TaiwanChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Active

In one paragraph: Taiwan lets personal data leave the country freely unless the ministry that regulates your industry has issued an order stopping it. There is no single privacy regulator: each industry ministry polices its own sector, and each has written its own security and breach-reporting rules. A big reform that would create one national regulator was passed in November 2025 but has never been switched on.
The catch: The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you touch health records, national health insurance data, banking or telecoms. Hospital data held in the cloud must physically sit in Taiwan. National health insurance records cannot be released to any organisation set up outside Taiwan at all. Banks need the financial regulator's permission before major consumer-finance systems go offshore, and must keep a backup of important customer data in Taiwan if they do.
Does this apply to me?: Yes. Taiwan's privacy law reaches a foreign company with no office and no staff in Taiwan. The law says plainly that it also applies to organisations outside Taiwan that collect, process or use the personal data of Taiwanese people. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below, and the law does not require you to appoint a local representative.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: In general, yes. Taiwan's privacy law does not ask you to sign anything or get anyone's permission before sending personal data abroad. Instead it gives each industry ministry the power to order that data in its sector may not go to a particular country. But four sectors have real walls, and in two of them the wall is absolute.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Under the general law, nothing. No standard contract, no government approval, no adequacy finding, no consent form. The model is a blocklist run sector by sector: you may send data anywhere unless the ministry that supervises your industry has issued an order stopping it. Your real job is to find out which ministry supervises you and check whether it has issued one.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: There is no national privacy regulator in Taiwan today. A Personal Data Protection Commission is named in the law as the authority in charge, but that provision has never been switched on, the law creating the Commission is still only a bill, and what exists is a preparatory office that writes draft rules and cannot fine anyone. Enforcement is done instead by whichever ministry regulates your industry, plus city and county governments, and those bodies are genuinely active.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions apply, and the floors are set by other laws, not the privacy law. Accounting vouchers must be kept at least five years and account books and financial statements at least ten years. Medical records must be kept at least seven years, and for children until seven years after they turn eighteen; records from human trials must be kept forever. Going the other way, you must delete personal data once the purpose you collected it for has gone or the period you set has run out.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least three clocks, and the fastest is one hour. Telecoms companies and larger internet providers must tell the communications regulator within one hour of learning about a major personal data incident, then file a full report within seventy-two hours. Government bodies and designated critical infrastructure operators also have one hour, under the separate cyber security law. Financial firms get seventy-two hours. And under the privacy law itself you must tell the affected people once you have established the facts, with no fixed deadline attached.High confidence
What's the trap?: Five things that will cost someone their weekend. First, the official English text of the privacy law on the government's own website includes provisions that are not law yet, including the one naming the national regulator. Second, breaking a cross-border transfer order is a crime, not a fine — up to five years in prison. Third, there is no single regulator to ask; your duties depend on which ministry supervises you. Fourth, a bank asked for Taiwanese customer data by a foreign financial regulator must get Taiwan's regulator's permission first. Fifth, if you are sued, you have to prove you were not at fault.High confidence
What's about to change?: One thing has already landed and one is waiting on a switch. The National Health Insurance Data Management Act came into force on 10 August 2026, and it gives people a short window to opt their health records out of research use before silence counts as agreement. Separately, the big privacy reform passed in November 2025 is sitting on the shelf: the Cabinet can bring it into force whenever it likes, by a single order, with no consultation.High confidence
Hardest industry wall: Health and social care — 醫療機構電子病歷製作及管理辦法 (Regulations Governing the Production and Management of Electronic Medical Records by Medical Institutions)
Health and social care — 全民健康保險資料管理條例 (National Health Insurance Data Management Act)
Banking — 金融機構作業委託他人處理內部作業制度及程序辦法 (Regulations Governing Internal Operating Systems and Procedures for the Outsourcing of Financial Institution Operation)

ItalyChecked 18 August 2026

Depends on your industryWork: HighEnforcement: Aggressive

In one paragraph: Italy does not make ordinary business data stay in Italy. European rules decide when data may leave Europe, and Italy layers its own rules on top. But the moment you sell to the Italian state — a ministry, a town hall, a hospital, a school — the picture changes completely. The most sensitive government data has to sit on machines inside Italy, run from Italy.
The catch: "Italy has no data localisation" holds right up until your customer is a public body. Italian government data is sorted into ordinary, critical and strategic. Strategic data belongs on Italian soil under Italian operational control; critical data may not go on a public cloud outside Europe. On top of that, a cloud provider needs a licence from the national cyber agency before any public body is allowed to buy from it at all. Separately, telecoms companies must keep call and connection records for years, and the government can attach storage-location conditions to fifth-generation mobile and cloud contracts case by case.
Does this apply to me?: Yes, it reaches you with no office in Italy. European law applies to any organisation anywhere that offers goods or services to people in Italy, or that monitors what they do online. There is no size or revenue threshold to duck under. If you have no branch anywhere in Europe, you must appoint a written representative based in Europe, and people and regulators can go to that representative instead of chasing you abroad.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?: For a normal private company, yes — with paperwork, exactly as anywhere else in Europe. Italy has no general law saying personal data must be stored in Italy. The real walls are in one place: anything sold to or run by the Italian public sector. Government data is graded ordinary, critical or strategic, and the top two grades cannot sit on a public cloud outside Europe, with strategic data confined to infrastructure inside Italy and operated from Italy.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?: Three routes, and they are European rather than Italian. Best case, the destination is on Europe's official approved list and you need nothing extra. Otherwise you sign Europe's standard contract with the recipient, or get group-wide internal rules approved by a regulator. With the last two you must also write down an assessment of whether the destination country's surveillance laws would undermine the protection. Italy adds no extra permission step, but it does add a criminal offence for getting it badly wrong.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?: The Italian data protection authority, known as the Garante, and it is one of the busiest and boldest regulators in Europe. In 2025 alone it took 807 decisions, of which 506 were corrective or punitive, ran 130 inspections and collected more than 37 million euros (about 41 million dollars) in fines. It was the first regulator in the world to order a temporary halt to a major chatbot service, and it has since blocked or restricted several artificial intelligence products. Cybersecurity is enforced by a separate agency.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?: Both directions, and they pull hard against each other. The floors: telephone records must be kept 24 months, internet connection records 12 months, unanswered calls 30 days, and a separate six-year rule applies for terrorism and serious crime. Health records in the national system are erased 30 years after the patient dies. The ceiling is much tighter than people expect: the regulator says the technical logs behind staff email may normally be kept for no more than 21 days.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?: Count at least three clocks, and they run at the same time. A personal data breach goes to the Garante within 72 hours, and to the people affected without delay where the risk to them is high. If you are in scope of Italy's network security regime, a first warning goes to the national cyber agency within 24 hours, a fuller notification within 72 hours, and a final report within a month. Organisations inside the national cyber perimeter have a much shorter fuse, reported as six hours.Medium confidence
What's the trap?: Five. One: staff email logs may normally be kept only 21 days, and a regional government was punished in 2025 for keeping 90. Two: before you install any tool that could monitor employees, you need a union agreement or a labour inspectorate permit, and skipping it is a criminal matter, not a fine. Three: some data offences in Italy carry prison, not just penalties. Four: children can consent at 14 in Italy, not 16. Five: the widely reported rule forcing public-sector artificial intelligence onto Italian servers was deleted before the law passed, so citing it is wrong.High confidence
What's about to change?: Two firm dates and one open wound. By 31 October 2026 organisations in Italy's network security regime must have their basic security measures in place and evidenced. From 12 January 2027 every cloud provider must charge nothing for switching away or pulling data out. The open wound is the Italian regulator itself: one of four board seats has been empty since January 2026 and Parliament has not filled it.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall: Government — Regolamento unico per le infrastrutture e i servizi cloud per la PA — Determinazione ACN n. 21007/24

The eight framework questions answered for each selected country
Question	TaiwanChecked 18 August 2026	ItalyChecked 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	Taiwan lets personal data leave the country freely unless the ministry that regulates your industry has issued an order stopping it. There is no single privacy regulator: each industry ministry polices its own sector, and each has written its own security and breach-reporting rules. A big reform that would create one national regulator was passed in November 2025 but has never been switched on.	Italy does not make ordinary business data stay in Italy. European rules decide when data may leave Europe, and Italy layers its own rules on top. But the moment you sell to the Italian state — a ministry, a town hall, a hospital, a school — the picture changes completely. The most sensitive government data has to sit on machines inside Italy, run from Italy.
The catch	The relaxed headline stops being true the moment you touch health records, national health insurance data, banking or telecoms. Hospital data held in the cloud must physically sit in Taiwan. National health insurance records cannot be released to any organisation set up outside Taiwan at all. Banks need the financial regulator's permission before major consumer-finance systems go offshore, and must keep a backup of important customer data in Taiwan if they do.	"Italy has no data localisation" holds right up until your customer is a public body. Italian government data is sorted into ordinary, critical and strategic. Strategic data belongs on Italian soil under Italian operational control; critical data may not go on a public cloud outside Europe. On top of that, a cloud provider needs a licence from the national cyber agency before any public body is allowed to buy from it at all. Separately, telecoms companies must keep call and connection records for years, and the government can attach storage-location conditions to fifth-generation mobile and cloud contracts case by case.
Does this apply to me?	Yes. Taiwan's privacy law reaches a foreign company with no office and no staff in Taiwan. The law says plainly that it also applies to organisations outside Taiwan that collect, process or use the personal data of Taiwanese people. There is no revenue or headcount threshold to fall below, and the law does not require you to appoint a local representative.High confidence	Yes, it reaches you with no office in Italy. European law applies to any organisation anywhere that offers goods or services to people in Italy, or that monitors what they do online. There is no size or revenue threshold to duck under. If you have no branch anywhere in Europe, you must appoint a written representative based in Europe, and people and regulators can go to that representative instead of chasing you abroad.High confidence
Can the data leave the country?	In general, yes. Taiwan's privacy law does not ask you to sign anything or get anyone's permission before sending personal data abroad. Instead it gives each industry ministry the power to order that data in its sector may not go to a particular country. But four sectors have real walls, and in two of them the wall is absolute.High confidence	For a normal private company, yes — with paperwork, exactly as anywhere else in Europe. Italy has no general law saying personal data must be stored in Italy. The real walls are in one place: anything sold to or run by the Italian public sector. Government data is graded ordinary, critical or strategic, and the top two grades cannot sit on a public cloud outside Europe, with strategic data confined to infrastructure inside Italy and operated from Italy.High confidence
What do I have to do to send it abroad?	Under the general law, nothing. No standard contract, no government approval, no adequacy finding, no consent form. The model is a blocklist run sector by sector: you may send data anywhere unless the ministry that supervises your industry has issued an order stopping it. Your real job is to find out which ministry supervises you and check whether it has issued one.High confidence	Three routes, and they are European rather than Italian. Best case, the destination is on Europe's official approved list and you need nothing extra. Otherwise you sign Europe's standard contract with the recipient, or get group-wide internal rules approved by a regulator. With the last two you must also write down an assessment of whether the destination country's surveillance laws would undermine the protection. Italy adds no extra permission step, but it does add a criminal offence for getting it badly wrong.High confidence
Who enforces this — and are they actually working?	There is no national privacy regulator in Taiwan today. A Personal Data Protection Commission is named in the law as the authority in charge, but that provision has never been switched on, the law creating the Commission is still only a bill, and what exists is a preparatory office that writes draft rules and cannot fine anyone. Enforcement is done instead by whichever ministry regulates your industry, plus city and county governments, and those bodies are genuinely active.High confidence	The Italian data protection authority, known as the Garante, and it is one of the busiest and boldest regulators in Europe. In 2025 alone it took 807 decisions, of which 506 were corrective or punitive, ran 130 inspections and collected more than 37 million euros (about 41 million dollars) in fines. It was the first regulator in the world to order a temporary halt to a major chatbot service, and it has since blocked or restricted several artificial intelligence products. Cybersecurity is enforced by a separate agency.High confidence
How long must I keep it, and when must I delete it?	Both directions apply, and the floors are set by other laws, not the privacy law. Accounting vouchers must be kept at least five years and account books and financial statements at least ten years. Medical records must be kept at least seven years, and for children until seven years after they turn eighteen; records from human trials must be kept forever. Going the other way, you must delete personal data once the purpose you collected it for has gone or the period you set has run out.High confidence	Both directions, and they pull hard against each other. The floors: telephone records must be kept 24 months, internet connection records 12 months, unanswered calls 30 days, and a separate six-year rule applies for terrorism and serious crime. Health records in the national system are erased 30 years after the patient dies. The ceiling is much tighter than people expect: the regulator says the technical logs behind staff email may normally be kept for no more than 21 days.High confidence
What happens when something goes wrong?	Count at least three clocks, and the fastest is one hour. Telecoms companies and larger internet providers must tell the communications regulator within one hour of learning about a major personal data incident, then file a full report within seventy-two hours. Government bodies and designated critical infrastructure operators also have one hour, under the separate cyber security law. Financial firms get seventy-two hours. And under the privacy law itself you must tell the affected people once you have established the facts, with no fixed deadline attached.High confidence	Count at least three clocks, and they run at the same time. A personal data breach goes to the Garante within 72 hours, and to the people affected without delay where the risk to them is high. If you are in scope of Italy's network security regime, a first warning goes to the national cyber agency within 24 hours, a fuller notification within 72 hours, and a final report within a month. Organisations inside the national cyber perimeter have a much shorter fuse, reported as six hours.Medium confidence
What's the trap?	Five things that will cost someone their weekend. First, the official English text of the privacy law on the government's own website includes provisions that are not law yet, including the one naming the national regulator. Second, breaking a cross-border transfer order is a crime, not a fine — up to five years in prison. Third, there is no single regulator to ask; your duties depend on which ministry supervises you. Fourth, a bank asked for Taiwanese customer data by a foreign financial regulator must get Taiwan's regulator's permission first. Fifth, if you are sued, you have to prove you were not at fault.High confidence	Five. One: staff email logs may normally be kept only 21 days, and a regional government was punished in 2025 for keeping 90. Two: before you install any tool that could monitor employees, you need a union agreement or a labour inspectorate permit, and skipping it is a criminal matter, not a fine. Three: some data offences in Italy carry prison, not just penalties. Four: children can consent at 14 in Italy, not 16. Five: the widely reported rule forcing public-sector artificial intelligence onto Italian servers was deleted before the law passed, so citing it is wrong.High confidence
What's about to change?	One thing has already landed and one is waiting on a switch. The National Health Insurance Data Management Act came into force on 10 August 2026, and it gives people a short window to opt their health records out of research use before silence counts as agreement. Separately, the big privacy reform passed in November 2025 is sitting on the shelf: the Cabinet can bring it into force whenever it likes, by a single order, with no consultation.High confidence	Two firm dates and one open wound. By 31 October 2026 organisations in Italy's network security regime must have their basic security measures in place and evidenced. From 12 January 2027 every cloud provider must charge nothing for switching away or pulling data out. The open wound is the Italian regulator itself: one of four board seats has been empty since January 2026 and Parliament has not filled it.Medium confidence
Hardest industry wall	Health and social care — 醫療機構電子病歷製作及管理辦法 (Regulations Governing the Production and Management of Electronic Medical Records by Medical Institutions) Health and social care — 全民健康保險資料管理條例 (National Health Insurance Data Management Act) Banking — 金融機構作業委託他人處理內部作業制度及程序辦法 (Regulations Governing Internal Operating Systems and Procedures for the Outsourcing of Financial Institution Operation)	Government — Regolamento unico per le infrastrutture e i servizi cloud per la PA — Determinazione ACN n. 21007/24