PRESS: Federal Security Service opposes pilot zones to test data law

MOSCOW, Mar 14 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Security Service has opposed tests of costly data retention law by connection operators in pilot zones and said traffic could be stored on the basis of existing law enforcement support systems, business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday, quoting participants of an expert meeting.

The Communications and Mass Media Ministry abstained from voting on the pilot zones and a gradual implementation of the law, although Deputy Minister Alexei Volin said earlier that the authority would back these initiatives.

The Federal Security Service is confident that there are all technical capacities to fulfil the law, but no precise grounds were presented, as participants of the meeting said.

The controversial law, signed by President Vladimir Putin in 2016, obliges connection operators and Internet companies to store content of subscribers’ calls, messages and exchanged data 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.

The Communications and Mass Media Ministry published bylaws in December 2016, but they do not describe a way of storage or those in charge for these activities.

The participants of the meeting complained that the security service and the ministry do not invite companies to a working group. The security watchdog said it will craft jointly with the ministry a regulatory act by June 30 on how long and in what volume the information should be stored.

The idea to launch a pilot zone to test the law was prepared by an expert group headed by Open Government Affairs Minister Mikhail Abyzov and was backed up by the country’s leading connection operators, like MTS and MegaFon.

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