PRESS: Russian govt may delay data retention law by 5 years

MOSCOW, Jul 4 (PRIME) -- The Russian government may delay entry into effect of the data retention law, which obliges telecom and Internet operators to store content of subscribers’ information for six months, until 2023 from 2018, business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.

A government source said that the Federal Security Service criticized the document, and the bill’s authors will take time to deliberate on their idea.

The law may also take effect gradually from July 1, 2018, that is why the bill needs amendments. Under the law, connection operators and Internet services must store all phone talks, text messages, sounds, video recordings, and other electronic messages of users for six months.

Mobile operators MTS, MegaFon, and T2 RTK Holding earlier wrote an open letter to the government, where they estimated expenses on data storage at 2.2 trillion rubles. The measure could hike connection tariffs as well.

The Communications and Mass Media Ministry crafted bylaws with parameters of data storage, but the documents have not been endorsed yet.

(58.9695 rubles – U.S. $1)

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