Internet services may be required to share data with security forces about the movements of clients and money
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Digital services that allow tracking geolocation and have payment functionality may be required to store data on transactions and user movements, as well as transfer it to law enforcement agencies. The initiative was developed by the Federal Security Service to speed up the investigation of crimes. Market participants fear that, due to vague wording, all companies included in the register of information dissemination organizers may fall under the requirements: there are currently more than 200 of them, including taxi services, dating services, and social networks.
Kommersant got acquainted with the draft government resolution, published for public discussion, developed by the FSB, expanding the list of data that companies included in the register of organizers of information dissemination (ORI, maintained by Roskomnadzor) must store and transfer to law enforcement agencies. The data includes information about user geolocation and electronic payments.
From the summary report to the draft resolution it follows that if a digital service collects data on the user’s location, then it will have to “provide the authorized FSB unit with 24-hour remote access to an information system containing information about users of the service and the services provided to them.”
The project also deals with the collection and transmission of voice information, text, images, sounds, video or other electronic messages from users – this data is proposed to be transmitted both to law enforcement agencies as part of operational investigative activities, and to authorities ensuring the security of the Russian Federation, then there is the FSB. If the resolution is adopted, it will come into force on the date of official publication.
The authors of the initiative explain its necessity by the fact that due to the absence of an obligation to store and provide “operational relevant information,” there are risks of untimely receipt of it by law enforcement agencies. Also because of this, the time required to suppress and solve crimes committed using IT is increasing, the summary report notes: “Taking into account the specific tasks in the fight against crime and ensuring state security, providing the FSB with access to information systems and databases without the possibility of obtaining full information about users, including data on geolocation and means of payment, will not meet the interests of society and the state.”
The FSB did not answer Kommersant. The Ministry of Digital Development is listed as a co-executor of the project; they also did not respond to the request.
Since July 1, 2018, ORI companies and telecom operators are already required to store user data (correspondence, audio and video messages) for six months and provide it at the request of intelligence services under the Yarovaya Law. The ARI registry includes more than 200 organizations and media. These include Yandex with its services Yandex Mail and Yandex Maps, Yandex.Taxi; “VKontakte”, “Odnoklassniki” (part of VK), “Mamba”; as well as banks.
On September 1, a government decree also came into force, which obliges passenger taxi services included in the ARI list to provide law enforcement agencies with “24-hour remote access to information systems and databases” of users. The list of ORI includes only Yandex.Taxi. If marked “urgent”, the taxi must transmit information to the special service within three working days, without such a mark – within ten. At the end of the summer, the Ministry of Internal Affairs developed amendments to the law “On Operational Investigative Activities”, according to which any information transmitted via the Internet is equated to data necessary for investigative actions (see “Kommersant” dated August 16). The current legislation already allows law enforcement agencies to request information about trips, and organizations are obliged to provide it, noted Pavel Stennikov, a representative of the Maxim taxi service: “However, previously it was about the date and addresses of the trip, but without geolocation.” Yandex and VK declined to comment.
The Big Data Association (which unites Yandex, VK, Rostelecom, MegaFon, etc.) says that the project concerns all organizers of information dissemination: “The rather vague wording of “geolocation monitoring” and “means of payment” raises concerns,” depending on their interpretation, there may be different, but potentially serious costs for IT infrastructure and technological retrofitting of not only large, but also small and medium-sized companies.”
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