Deputy PM says govt may postpone data retention law from July 1

TAGANROG, Rostov Region, Jan 19 (PRIME) – The Russian government is discussing a delay of the data retention law, currently due on July 1, by several months, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters on Friday.

“A small postponement is discussed, by several months. Amendments are also prepared, for a short period so far,” Dvorkovich said.

The law obliges connection operators and Internet companies to keep content of talks and correspondence of users, including photos, videos, and sound files, which can be handed over to special services upon their request for up to six months.

The order and type of data to be stored are yet to be clarified by the government and are expected to be milder than the initial version after clamor about heavy costs and a possible increase in tariffs for users.

One of the country’s main mobile operators, MegaFon, weighed its expenses on fulfilment of the data retention law at 35–40 billion rubles over five years with at least 7–8 billion rubles to be spent during the first year, and its peer MTS sees expenses at tens of billions of rubles.

(56.7597 rubles – U.S. $1)

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