Personal data

Yandex releases first-ever transparency report on government requests for user data

October 27, 2020

For the first time ever, the Internet services giant Yandex has released statistics on the number of requests for user information it has received from Russian government agencies. In the first half of 2020, branches of the government sent the company more than 15,000 requests and Yandex fulfilled 84 percent of them. According to Russian …

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Moscow city plans to use mobile technology to manage and monitor human traffic flows

October 21, 2020

In its efforts to manage and monitor the flow of human beings through the city, Moscow officials have experimented with mobile apps, QR codes, and telephone hotlines. Many of these systems have confused the elderly, overwhelmed operators, and frustrated virtually everyone. According to a new public contract reported in the Russian news media, the capital …

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“Big Brother is feeding you:” Sber collects biometric data from school canteens to cafe chains

October 12, 2020

Sberbank — the state-controlled giant which recently unveiled a suite of new technology products and dropped the word ‘bank’ from its corporate branding — is compiling a database of Russian citizens’ biometric information. Little is known about how the project is progressing, but online publication The Bell believes it could potentially concern some 100 million users of …

“Big Brother is feeding you:” Sber collects biometric data from school canteens to cafe chains Read More

Russian and Emirati sovereign wealth funds invest $13 million in sensitive face recognition technology

September 29, 2020

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, has teamed up with its Emirati peer Mubadala to invest “more than 1 billion rubles” (approximately $13 million at the current exchange rate) in Russian face recognition startup NtechLab.  Touting itself as “the global leader in computer vision systems based on artificial intelligence and neural networks,” NtechLab provides solutions …

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Russian Darkweb shares personal data of nearly 9 million US voters

September 2, 2020

Russian Internet users have shared the personal data of nearly every voter in Michigan (7.6 million of the state’s 7.8 million voters), as well as the information of another million voters in Arkansas, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Florida, according to the newspaper Kommersant. The data recently appeared on a Darknet forum, posted by a user nicknamed …

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All Russia’s personal data in one place: New draft law threatens right to privacy, says HRW

May 27, 2020

A draft law to create a “uniform federal database” in Russia – with the entire country’s personal data stored in one place – was adopted on May 21 by the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Backers of the bill say it aims at ensuring reliability and consistency of data countrywide, but Anastasia Zlobina, …

All Russia’s personal data in one place: New draft law threatens right to privacy, says HRW Read More

In Russia’s regions under lock down, digital permits could expose citizens to mass data leaks

November 12, 2020

At least 21 autonomous republics and regions of the Russian Federation are setting up digital permit systems to enforce self-isolation rules: with a few exceptions, anyone who wants to leave their home in those regions needs or will need an official permission. These regional governments are using one and the same application: “Gosuslugi Stop Coronavirus,” …

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Covid-19 patient data leaks out of hospitals and police stations across Russia

April 23, 2020

In Russia, coronavirus patients are facing a mass wave of doxxing attacks, meaning that their identities and private data are being made public on messaging apps and social media. The attacks often stem from leaks of medical and law enforcement data that come directly from doctors and police officers themselves. The victims of the leaks then …

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Twitter and Facebook fined over Russian personal data storage law

February 14, 2020

Yesterday a Russian court fined Twitter and Facebook 4 million rubles ($62,845) each for their failure to comply with Russia’s personal data storage law. According to the Russian media, the court session was attended neither by the representatives of the two companies nor by those of Roskomadzor, the Internet and telecom regulator, which filed the …

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Facebook, Twitter threatened with fines over data localization law

February 2, 2020

Facebook and Twitter have not provided yet the required information about the storage location of the Russian personal data they process, the authorities stated Friday. Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom regulator, said Friday the two companies could be forced to pay a fine ranging from 1 million rubles (approximately $16,000) and 6 million rubles ($94,000). …

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Report: How Kremlin-managed research center sells services to deanonymize anyone in Russia

September 23, 2019

According to independent-minded online publication Meduza, the Russian Presidential Affairs Department’s Scientific Research Computing Center “develops systems to monitor and deanonymize social-media users, and it sells these systems to government and private clients alike.” In a long journalistic investigation published last week, Meduza found that the services ‘PSKOV’ and ‘Sherlock,’ for example, can be used …

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