Russian service to check MegaFon, MTS for data storage law 2017

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian communications service will scrutinize the country’s top mobile operators MegaFon and MTS, as well as the biggest bank Sberbank, among others, for respect of the law obliging companies to store personal data of citizens in the country, according to the service’s approved plan for 2017, seen by PRIME on Thursday.

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media will check MegaFon and MTS in March and November respectively. Sberbank will face the scrutiny in April and Home Credit and Finance Bank in November.

The watchdog will closely watch the top four auditors: it will check PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit and Deloitte & Touche CIS in May and EY External Audit and KPMG in April.

Payment service Qiwi will be checked in October; online taxi hailing service Gett in July; and South Korean manufacturer LG in March. The authority will check a number of ministries and universities as well.

Under the law, in force since September 1, 2015, the service adds perpetrators’ Web sites, upon a court decision, to the special register and can block them in case of further misconduct.

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