PRESS: Russia could force Internet cos to store user correspondence

MOSCOW, Jun 21 (PRIME) -- Russian lawmakers are seeking to oblige Internet companies to store correspondence of users for six months and decipher it upon request of state entities, as follows from amendments introduced to a package of antiterrorist bills, business daily Vedomosti reported Tuesday.

The amendments were introduced by Irina Yarovaya, chairwoman of the security committee at the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house. Earlier, the initiative, jointly developed by Yarovaya and senator Viktor Ozerov, involved only telecom operators.

The security committee recommended that the State Duma approve the amendments concerning Internet companies in the second and the third and final readings on Wednesday. If endorsed, the amendments to the law on information and the Administrative Code will come into force on July 1, 2018.

The idea is that organizers of information distribution in the Internet, or Internet services, should store all user data on the country’s territory for six months, including correspondence and exchanged files.

According to the antiterrorist package as of August 2014, Internet companies are already obliged to keep for six months data on actions of users, but not the content of correspondence, and provide access to them to law-enforcement bodies upon request.

Internet companies strongly oppose the initiative as it will dramatically raise their expenses, an employee of one of the companies told the daily. Another source said expenses will double, to say the least.

The country’s Internet giant Yandex said earlier that its capital expenditures were at 13 billion rubles in 2015, and 84% of them were spent on servers and construction of data centers.

(64.1509 rubles – U.S. $1)

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