Legislation & regulation

New law to achieve unprecedented control over Russian citizens’ communications

February 28, 2017

Russia, which gave asylum to Edward Snowden after he exposed a vast U.S. surveillance program, is seeking unprecedented controls over its citizens’ communications. The lower house of parliament in Moscow gave preliminary approval to a bill that would require providers to store recordings of mobile-phone conversations and Internet activity for as long as three years. Since …

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New Russian software monitors office mobile phones

April 2, 2017

InfoWatch, a company owned by Natalya Kasperskaya, the former wife of Russian cyber security guru, Evgeny Kaspersky, has developed a solution for monitoring employees’ mobile phone conversations at work. The monitoring device already has a prototype. Russian government officials, however, say this system may be used only with an employee’s consent.  Otherwise, it can be considered a violation of the constitutional right to communication privacy. Labor contracts will have …

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Award-winning Russian face recognition technology used to harass young women and track pyromaniacs

September 29, 2020

A face recognition app called ‘FindFace‘ is sparking controversy in Russia over the destructive power of new technologies with regards to user privacy. Released in February by NtechLab, a startup established last year in Moscow, FindFace helps put names to faces on a picture. Combining facial recognition software with neural networks, the app will automatically match the image to people’s social media pages on Vkontakte, …

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Russian taxi drivers complain over Uber’s pressure on prices

March 2, 2017

On behalf of taxi drivers, the Federation of Russian Car Owners (FAR) has filed a complaint with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over the low prices dictated by taxi service aggregators, the RBC news agency reported Tuesday. The complaint by FAR said that the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) had refused to initiate legal action against Uber, …

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Yandex reveals the early results of the ‘right to be forgotten’

March 26, 2016

Since Russia’s new law on the “right to be forgotten” took effect on January 1, 2016, Yandex — Russia’s most popular Internet search engine — has received 3,600 takedown requests from 1,348 people. The company says it has complied with 27 percent of these requests, rejecting the rest. Yandex says its high rejection rate has …

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Uber to limit Moscow service to licensed cars and share data with city authorities

March 2, 2017

Uber  has agreed to limit its service in Moscow to drivers with a transportation license, Bloomberg reported yesterday. The company said it will also share traffic data with city officials, as well as the number of drivers using the app each month. Moscow’s transportation department had previously planned to ask police and a judge to …

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Bank of Russia sets up working group on Blockchain technologies

February 29, 2016

Russia’s financial regulator, Bank of Russia, announced it has set up a working group whose main task is to analyze the technological innovations on the financial markets and the blockchain technology in particular. The deputy chair of the Bank of Russia, Olga Skorobogatova who headed the group, noted that the fast development and digitalization of the financial technologies …

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Russian authorities to tighten control over Internet traffic “against external threats”

February 16, 2016

The Russian government is planning to tightly control Internet traffic in the country. A parliamentary bill has been drafted by the Russian communications ministry, according to daily newspaper Vedomosti, which obtained official documents relating to the matter. The ministry’s plan calls for creating a government system to monitor Internet traffic routes along communication channels. It would track DNS servers and the assignment of IP addresses. Meanwhile, …

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Russian military reveals plan for global ‘cyberwarfare non-aggression pact’

January 31, 2017

Last week a top Russian military official revealed plans for a United Nations-backed plan to ban cyberwarfare attacks in peacetime between all leading powers. “The first step in this direction will be the signing of the Electronic Non-Aggression Pact, which will be signed under the auspices of the UN,” Yury Kuznetsov, head of the Russian …

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2015 in review: The Russian Internet was less free than ever

February 7, 2016

East-West Digital News reviews the most important developments on the Russian high-tech scene in 2015. Today’s article analyzes the growing restrictions on online freedom in a country where the Internet was once considered to be relatively free.    2015 was marked by expanding restrictions and controversies around several Internet-related issues. In January, the authorities banned several bitcoin websites. However, following an appeal filed …

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2015 in review: Russia set strict restrictions to international data transfers and payment transactions

February 27, 2017

East-West Digital News reviews the most important developments on the Russian high-tech scene in 2015. Today’s story is about the main changes in the legal environment which affected foreign businesses.    1. Legislation on personal data storage Russia’s new legislation on personal data storage came into force on September 1. According to the new rules, only databases located in …

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RuNet 2016: Pressure shifts from companies to citizens

February 7, 2016

A space beyond governmental control, the Internet has long been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side. The search for a solution began in 2012. Various tricks have been tried, from the introduction of internet filters and the updating of a national system of online surveillance known as SORM to the direct intimidation of Internet giants both domestic and international. By 2014 the Kremlin had came up with something akin to a strategy. Accustomed …

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