Since this morning, many LinkedIn users from Russia have not been able to access the site. Local Internet service providers have started to block access to the site following as requested by telecom regulator Roskomnadzor.
In a short statement, Roskomnadzor cites a Moscow court decision from August, according to which LinkedIn has failed to comply with the Russian legislation on personal data storage. This initial court decision was confirmed last week by following an appeal from the US company.
Russia’s new legislation on personal data, which came into force in September 2015, requires to store Russian citizens’ personal data only in servers located on Russia territory (see white paper by EWDN and EY).
Many Russian and foreign organizations — including Alibaba, Apple, Booking.com, eBay, Google and Uber — have already transfered user data from foreign data centers to Russia, or announced ongoing projects to do so, while others have not complied so far.
Virtual space or Russian territory?
This is the case of LinkedIn, which launched a Russian version of its platform five years ago. Earlier this year, the company had not provided any “substantial answer” to two inquiries from Roskomnadzor, according to this organization.
In addition, Roskomnadzor pointed out the “big disorders with leaks of personal data from LinkedIn since 2010,” as stated by Ampelovsky last month.
In statements made at the court hearing last week, the LinkedIn defendant argued that the Russian legislation does not apply to LinkedIn users, “who are factually located in the [virtual space] outside the Russian Federation, and provide their personal data there.”
As reported by TV Rain, the defendant denied that LinkedIn violates Russian users’ rights in any way, since these users voluntarily accept the site’s terms of use.
These arguments proved insufficient to convince the Moscow court.
Toward a positive outcome?
A positive outcome is not ruled out, however. In statements made on Russian television this morning, Presidential Internet Adviser German Klimenko showed some optimism, assuming that “LinkedIn is likely to finally comply with the [legal] requirements, and access to the site will be restored.”
“The divergence is due to the fact that LinkedIn has an American experience while our court has a Russian interpretation of the law,” the official said, as reported by the Interfax news agency.
“For the moment, Roskomnadzor is simply enforcing a court decision. [But it is not ruled out that,] following the current situation, the law could be clarified or amended. Legislation is rather flexible over here when it comes to the Internet, which is a new environment.”
Should the legislation remain unchanged, LinkedIn may still have the capacity to comply. When launching its service in China in 2014, the US company built a separate site, with data stored on local servers, in order to meet similar regulatory requirements, according to TechCrunch.
A LinkedIn spokeswoman said the firm was still interested in meeting Roskomnadzor “to discuss their data localization request,” as reported by the local media.
The site has more than 5 million users from Russia.
