Senator wants watchdog to check if VPN use respects Russian law

MOSCOW, Aug 9 (PRIME) -- Russian senator Irina Rukavishnikova has requested that the communications service give an opinion whether free use of VPN services, which allow the people to get access to the locally blocked content, complies with the law, she said on Tuesday.

The watchdog’s “objective investigation” may become a basis for revision of the current law, said Rukavishnikova, who is first deputy head of the constitutional legislation committee and deputy head of the council for the digital economy development at the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house

“The exploitation of VPN services has actively widened among the Russian Internet users. According to experts, such services are not protected against viruses and other cyberthreats, can be used to get free access to the content blocked in the Russian Federation and for collection of personal data and its further illegal distribution,” the senator said.

She also wants the communications service to name possible risks of the use of VPN services by the country’s Internet users.

Rukavishnikova told PRIME that the global VPN market amounted to U.S. $32 billion in 2020 and may reach $54 billion by 2024 and $70 billion by 2027, and not all the countries regulate the exploitation of VPN services.

End