Pres spox: ITIF’s words on threat of Russia’s data law need proof

MOSCOW, Jan 12 (PRIME) -- The U.S.’ Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) should have waited for a final decision on Russia’s data retention laws before groundlessly calling them a threat to the global innovative development, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

“As far as I know, work is still under way. There are different points of view, including in the open government,” Peskov said. “At least one should wait for an expert verdict before forming a positon.”

The open government is a doctrine of state management that supports households’ right to access documents and activities of the government to ensure public control and involvement.

“You know that when signing the bill into law, at the same time the president signed a number of orders to the government to stay in contact with operators and discuss all technical aspects of implementation of the law,” Peskov said.

The ITIF published a research on the worst innovation mercantilist policies in 2016, which listed Russia’s antiterrorist measures put forward by deputy Irina Yarovaya and senator Viktor Ozerov, among initiatives of other countries, including China, Germany, Indonesia, Turkey and Vietnam.

The report said that many countries “have turned to ‘innovation mercantilism’ – a strategy that seeks to achieve prosperity by imposing protectionist and trade-distorting policies that tip market scales to expand domestic technology production.”

The controversial package of measures adopted in Russia in 2016 obliges connection operators and Internet services to retain phone talks, text messages, images, videos and other exchanged information of subscribers for six months from July 1, 2018. Telecom operators must keep metadata for three years, while Internet companies for one year.

In August the Web site of the Russian Public Initiatives received some 100,000 votes to ban the controversial draft, which will be followed by an expert council at the minister for the open government matters.

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