Data protection and privacy laws in the European Union and the European Economic Area are governed by the EU’s General Data Protection and Regulation (GDPR).
The legislation sets standards for how businesses must safeguard the personal information of those who live within their boundaries.

The goal of the GDPR is to give people more control over their data and to make international commerce more efficient. The principles and measures for protecting personal data must be considered when designing business operations that handle personal data.
Data breaches must be reported to national regulatory authorities within 72 hours if they have the potential to harm the privacy of their customers.
Subjects’ identities cannot be determined from publicly accessible datasets if data controllers adhere to the GDRP’s strict privacy requirements.
There are six legal bases for processing personal data:
- permission,
- contract,
- public duty,
- vital interest,
- legitimate interest, or a legal mandate.
These are the only ways to treat personal data.
There must be a clear explanation for why the user’s information is collected, a declaration of the legal basis on which the information is processed, and a statement of how long the data will be kept and if it will be shared with any third parties by the data controller.
The legislation protects EU and EEA member states, but businesses outside those regions must abide by its requirements or face the repercussions of non-compliance.
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To continue providing services to the EU market, non-EU businesses must put systems in place, staff them, and manage them. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was signed into law on April 14, 2016, and went into effect on May 25, 2018.

Countries Affected by GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
The GDPR applies to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Accordingly, as long as the United Kingdom is a European Union member state, the GDPR will be adopted into British law.
Country | 2022 Population |
---|---|
China | 1448471.4000 |
India | 1406631.7760 |
United States | 334805.2690 |
Indonesia | 279134.5050 |
Pakistan | 229488.9940 |
Nigeria | 216746.9340 |
Brazil | 215353.5930 |
Bangladesh | 167885.6890 |
Russia | 145805.9470 |
Mexico | 131562.7720 |
Japan | 125584.8380 |
Ethiopia | 120812.6980 |
Philippines | 112508.9940 |
Egypt | 106156.6920 |
Vietnam | 98953.5410 |
DR Congo | 95240.7920 |
Iran | 86022.8370 |
Turkey | 85561.9760 |
Germany | 83883.5960 |
Thailand | 70078.2030 |
United Kingdom | 68497.9070 |
France | 65584.5180 |
Tanzania | 63298.5500 |
South Africa | 60756.1350 |
Italy | 60262.7700 |
Kenya | 56215.2210 |
Myanmar | 55227.1430 |
Colombia | 51512.7620 |
South Korea | 51329.8990 |
Uganda | 48432.8630 |
Spain | 46719.1420 |
Argentina | 46010.2340 |
Sudan | 45992.0200 |
Algeria | 45350.1480 |
Ukraine | 43192.1220 |
Iraq | 42164.9650 |
Afghanistan | 40754.3880 |
Canada | 38388.4190 |
Morocco | 37772.7560 |
Poland | 37739.7850 |
Saudi Arabia | 35844.9090 |
Angola | 35027.3430 |
Uzbekistan | 34382.0840 |
Peru | 33684.2080 |
Malaysia | 33181.0720 |
Mozambique | 33089.4610 |
Ghana | 32395.4500 |
Yemen | 31154.8670 |
Nepal | 30225.5820 |
Venezuela | 29266.9910 |
Madagascar | 29178.0770 |
Cameroon | 27911.5480 |
Ivory Coast | 27742.2980 |
Niger | 26083.6600 |
Australia | 26068.7920 |
North Korea | 25990.6790 |
Taiwan | 23888.5950 |
Burkina Faso | 22102.8380 |
Sri Lanka | 21575.8420 |
Mali | 21473.7640 |
Malawi | 20180.8390 |
Zambia | 19470.2340 |
Syria | 19364.8090 |
Chile | 19250.1950 |
Kazakhstan | 19205.0430 |
Romania | 19031.3350 |
Guatemala | 18584.0390 |
Ecuador | 18113.3610 |
Senegal | 17653.6710 |
Chad | 17413.5800 |
Netherlands | 17211.4470 |
Cambodia | 17168.6390 |
Somalia | 16841.7950 |
Zimbabwe | 15331.4280 |
Guinea | 13865.6910 |
Rwanda | 13600.4640 |
Benin | 12784.7260 |
Burundi | 12624.8400 |
Tunisia | 12046.6560 |
Bolivia | 11992.6560 |
Haiti | 11680.2830 |
Belgium | 11668.2780 |
South Sudan | 11618.5110 |
Cuba | 11305.6520 |
Dominican Republic | 11056.3700 |
Czech Republic | 10736.7840 |
Greece | 10316.6370 |
Jordan | 10300.8690 |
Azerbaijan | 10300.2050 |
Honduras | 10221.2470 |
Sweden | 10218.9710 |
Portugal | 10140.5700 |
United Arab Emirates | 10081.7850 |
Tajikistan | 9957.4640 |
Hungary | 9606.2590 |
Belarus | 9432.8000 |
Papua New Guinea | 9292.1690 |
Austria | 9066.7100 |
Israel | 8922.8920 |
Switzerland | 8773.6370 |
Togo | 8680.8370 |
Serbia | 8653.0160 |
Sierra Leone | 8306.4360 |
Hong Kong | 7604.2990 |
Laos | 7481.0230 |
Paraguay | 7305.8430 |
Libya | 7040.7450 |
Bulgaria | 6844.5970 |
Nicaragua | 6779.1000 |
Kyrgyzstan | 6728.2710 |
Lebanon | 6684.8490 |
El Salvador | 6550.3890 |
Turkmenistan | 6201.9430 |
Singapore | 5943.5460 |
Denmark | 5834.9500 |
Republic of the Congo | 5797.8050 |
Finland | 5554.9600 |
Norway | 5511.3700 |
Slovakia | 5460.1930 |
Palestine | 5345.5410 |
Oman | 5323.9930 |
Liberia | 5305.1170 |
Costa Rica | 5182.3540 |
Ireland | 5020.1990 |
Central African Republic | 5016.6780 |
Mauritania | 4901.9810 |
New Zealand | 4898.2030 |
Panama | 4446.9640 |
Kuwait | 4380.3260 |
Croatia | 4059.2860 |
Moldova | 4013.1710 |
Georgia | 3968.7380 |
Eritrea | 3662.2440 |
Uruguay | 3496.0160 |
Mongolia | 3378.0780 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3249.3170 |
Jamaica | 2985.0940 |
Qatar | 2979.9150 |
Armenia | 2971.9660 |
Albania | 2866.3740 |
Puerto Rico | 2829.8120 |
Lithuania | 2661.7080 |
Namibia | 2633.8740 |
Gambia | 2558.4820 |
Botswana | 2441.1620 |
Gabon | 2331.5330 |
Lesotho | 2175.6990 |
North Macedonia | 2081.3040 |
Slovenia | 2078.0340 |
Guinea-Bissau | 2063.3670 |
Latvia | 1848.8370 |
Bahrain | 1783.9830 |
Equatorial Guinea | 1496.6620 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 1406.5850 |
Timor-Leste | 1369.4290 |
Estonia | 1321.9100 |
Mauritius | 1274.7270 |
Cyprus | 1223.3870 |
Eswatini | 1184.8170 |
Djibouti | 1016.0970 |
Fiji | 909.4660 |
Reunion | 908.0610 |
Comoros | 907.4190 |
Guyana | 794.0450 |
Bhutan | 787.9410 |
Solomon Islands | 721.1590 |
Macau | 667.4900 |
Luxembourg | 642.3710 |
Montenegro | 627.9500 |
Western Sahara | 626.1610 |
Suriname | 596.8310 |
Cape Verde | 567.6780 |
Maldives | 540.9850 |
Brunei | 445.4310 |
Malta | 444.0330 |
Belize | 412.1900 |
Bahamas | 400.5160 |
Guadeloupe | 399.7940 |
Martinique | 374.0870 |
Iceland | 345.3930 |
Vanuatu | 321.8320 |
French Guiana | 314.1690 |
New Caledonia | 290.9150 |
Barbados | 288.0230 |
Mayotte | 286.2590 |
French Polynesia | 284.1640 |
Sao Tome and Principe | 227.6790 |
Samoa | 202.2390 |
Saint Lucia | 185.1130 |
Guam | 171.5190 |
Curacao | 165.5290 |
Kiribati | 123.4190 |
Micronesia | 117.4890 |
Grenada | 113.4750 |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 111.5510 |
Tonga | 107.7490 |
Aruba | 107.6090 |
United States Virgin Islands | 103.9710 |
Antigua and Barbuda | 99.5090 |
Seychelles | 99.4260 |
Isle of Man | 85.7320 |
Andorra | 77.4630 |
Dominica | 72.3440 |
Cayman Islands | 67.2770 |
Bermuda | 61.9390 |
Marshall Islands | 60.0570 |
Northern Mariana Islands | 58.2690 |
Greenland | 56.9730 |
American Samoa | 55.0300 |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | 53.8710 |
Faroe Islands | 49.2330 |
Sint Maarten | 43.9660 |
Monaco | 39.7830 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 39.7410 |
Saint Martin | 39.7300 |
Liechtenstein | 38.3870 |
San Marino | 34.0850 |
Gibraltar | 33.7040 |
British Virgin Islands | 30.5960 |
Palau | 18.2330 |
Cook Islands | 17.5710 |
Anguilla | 15.2300 |
Tuvalu | 12.0660 |
Wallis and Futuna | 10.9820 |
Nauru | 10.9030 |
Saint Barthelemy | 9.9450 |
Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 5.7590 |
Montserrat | 4.9650 |
Falkland Islands | 3.5390 |
Niue | 1.6220 |
Tokelau | 1.3780 |
Vatican City | 0.7990 |