Last week Private Internet Access (PIA), a VPN provider based in California, announced that it was suspending all operations in Russia following server seizure by the Russian authorities and due to an ever-more restrictive legal environment.
Under a controversial “anti-terrorist” legislation signed by President Putin in early July, Internet and telecom players will soon be required to store the content and the metadata of all their users’ communications for a significant period of time. The legislation also aims to provide the FSB, Russia’s secret service, with transparent access to all these messages, even encrypted ones. These rules will entail huge costs for operators – if it can be applied, which many experts believe is not even realistic.
Ted Kim, the general director of PIA’s mother company London Trust Media, told independent online publication Meduza about his experience working in Russia. He provided details about the seizure of PIA’s servers, and shared his vision of the future of Internet-privacy-protection technologies in this country.
Ted Kim of London Trust Media: “Russians will be forced, by their own government, to learn about privacy-protecting technology”Read More
