According to a report published last week by US publication Business Insider, a range of western tech firms are users of FindFace, a controversial face recognition technology developed by Russian startup NtechLab. FindFace matches faces against social media accounts, regardless of privacy rights, among other facial recognition capabilities. Its approach is similar to that developed by US …
A Russian court fined U.S. tech giants WhatsApp, Snapchat and Tinder on Thursday for refusing to store the personal data of Russian users inside the country, as stipulated by the demanding local legislation, U.S. company Meta, the owner of messaging service Whatsapp, was ordered by Moscow’s Tagansky District Court to pay 18 million rubles (nearly $300,000 at …
Russia fines Apple, Snapchat, Tinder, WhatsApp for data storage law violations Read More
A Moscow court on Thursday said it had fined Alphabet’s Google 15 million roubles ($260,000) for repeatedly failing to comply with a Russian law requiring technology companies to localise user data. Russia has issued multiple fines to foreign technology companies in recent years over a range of infringements, in what critics say is Moscow’s attempt …
Russian court fines Google $260,000 for breaching data rules Read More
Darknet forums and Telegram channels have started selling databases containing the personal information of Russians who purchased fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates and forged PCR test results. Journalists at Kommersant spoke to one vendor who offered to sell them a database with 1,000 lines of information for $120. The file contained people’s passport numbers, insurance policy numbers, telephone …
In the latest move of a long saga, a Moscow court fined yesterday three US digital companies for violating the country’s personal data storage legislation. Facebook and Twitter were fined 15 million rubles (some $200,000 at the current exchange rate) and 17 million rubles ($230,000), respectively, for repeat infractions, while WhatsApp will have to pay 4 million …
Last week a Russian court fined Google’s local subsidiary 3 million rubles (around $41,000 at the current exchange rate) for violating Russia’s personal data storage law, reports TASS news agency. While the US digital giant had previously been fined for refusing to remove censored information and for abusing dominant position, it is the first fine …
Moscow court fines Google for breaching Russia’s personal data storage law Read More
At the request of Russia’s censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has banned the Telegram bot “Eye of God” for alleged illegal activity that violates privacy rights. According to Roskomnadzor’s claim, the Telegram bot, which searches online databases for people’s personal information, violates privacy rights “by accessing an indefinite circle of persons’ personal data …
Moscow court bans Telegram bot ‘Eye of God’ over privacy violations Read More
While identifying FSB agents reportedly involved in Alexey Navalny’s Novichok poisoning, international investigation group Bellingcat revealed today how deep and worrying are the implications of Russia’s data black market. Bellingcat’s work on the Navalny case originated from a previous investigation into Russian chemical weapons projects. Call metadata were analyzed for the telephone numbers used by two executives of SC Signal, an entity “involved in the development of new variants …
Just days after its anti-covid digital solutions were awarded at a prestigious nationwide contest, the Moscow mayor’s office admitted that some 300,000 Moscow Covid-19 patients were affected by a huge data breach. The incident was revealed by online publication Readovka, according to which not only patients’ full names, but also their address details and Covid-related medical …
Moscow Covid-19 patients affected by huge data leak Read More
As part of the European strategy for data, the European Commission proposes a set of measures to “foster the availability of data.” A part of them, published on November 25, focus on “increasing trust in data intermediaries and strengthening data-sharing mechanisms across the EU.” These measures are aligned with the consumer protection requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) …
Facebook has paid a 4 million ruble ($53,000) fine, which was levied in February, for violating Russia’s personal data storage law. Proceedings against the company have been dropped, Russian state-run news agencies reported — without specifying whether or not Facebook now complies with the law. Over the past years the regulator Roskomnadzor requested Facebook and Twitter several …
Facebook pays $53,000 fine for breaching Russian personal data storage law Read More
Russia’s Digital Development Ministry is finishing work on a new mobile app designed to combat the spread of COVID-19. Its working name is ‘Stopcoronavirus. My contacts.’ The contact-tracing app, which relies on technologies developed by Apple and Google, is designed to track nearby mobile devices and warn the user if they have been within 10 …
Russian government prepares to launch coronavirus contact-tracing app Read More
