Deputy PM holds meeting on data laws, revision option discussed

MOSCOW, Feb 17 (PRIME) -- Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich held a meeting on Friday on implementation of the much-argued data retention laws and participants discussed possibilities of the regulations’ revision, his press secretary Aliya Samigullina said.

“They discussed priorities and an order of deliberation on bylaws and a feasible correction of the laws in case of an impossibility to reflect the agreed position in the resolution,” Samigullina said.

President Vladimir Putin signed into law an antiterrorist package, including the data retention laws and orders to the government in 2016.

The laws oblige connection operators and Internet companies to store calls and messages for up to six months from July 1, 2018. Metadata must be stored for three years by connection operators and for one year by Internet companies from July 20, 2016.

Internet companies are also obliged to provide the Federal Security Service with keys in case of additional encoding of messages.

An expert group headed by Open Government Affairs Minister Mikhail Abyzov on Wednesday recommended the government hold additional consultations with connection operators, distributors of information in the Internet, the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The communications ministry is completing amendments to the data retention laws to reduce the volume of stored information, which can cut operators’ expenses to 100 billion rubles from 5 trillion rubles.

The expert group also decided that voice traffic and text messages should be primarily stored, and they will account for 1–4.5% of the total volume expected to be aggregated and stored for six months. Excessive data, like Internet video and IPTV, accounting for 80% of traffic, will not be stored.

(57.1507 rubles – U.S. $1)

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