EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorPersonal Backup & SyncHeadquarters: KR

Samsung Cloud: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Samsung Cloud is the backup, sync and restore service built into Samsung Galaxy devices. It keeps device settings, layouts, apps and items such as Samsung Notes and browser tabs, so they can be restored after an upgrade or reset and accessed from other devices signed in to the same Samsung account. Temporary cloud backups are kept for 30 days, and availability varies by country and network provider. The Enhanced Data Protection option encrypts stored data on supported devices.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a South Korean company headquartered in Suwon, and it is the flagship listed company of the Samsung Group. Its largest shareholders are Korean institutions and companies. The Samsung Cloud pages do not state where the service stores data, so the location of backups cannot be confirmed from the vendor's product information. For a European organisation the service is tied to a Samsung account, and its privacy terms and device settings should be reviewed before it is used for business data.

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Sovereignty score
32 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (KR)
  • Data residency SOV-30
    No hosting in Europe (OTHER)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
    Key management with a non-European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-630
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 10, 2026
HeadquartersKR (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionYes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingOTHERVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantNoVendor-stated
CategoryPersonal Backup & Sync
TypeProduct
Websitesamsung.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Samsung Cloud

The European alternatives to Samsung Cloud come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

19 European Personal Backup & Sync vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with Samsung Cloud

Samsung Cloud is headquartered in KR, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor.

Samsung Cloud hosts data outside the EU (OTHER). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

Samsung Cloud is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Samsung Cloud together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Samsung Cloud?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Samsung Cloud include Acronis True Image, Ashampoo Backup and Backup4all. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Samsung Cloud?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Samsung Cloud include BorgBackup, Cryptomator and FreeFileSync. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Samsung Cloud GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Samsung Cloud is headquartered in KR (OTHER) and hosts data in OTHER. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 10, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in Personal Backup & Sync

Personal Backup & Sync: Personal backup tools, file synchronisation and data recovery. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to Samsung Cloud — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score