Russia has turned its attention toward companies coming from the West, in an attempt to obtain useful information in the field of privacy. Through Roskomnadzor, the Russians are trying to find a pathway to collecting the data required by Western companies and overcoming the safety hazards that can undermine their overall security.

Roskomnadzor is the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications and has been targeting sources from the West, such as Twitter, in order to acquire the information requested. In a country where the decision for ceasefire with Ukraine is still new and ineffective to a certain extent, the fears of Internet penetration and lack of privacy seem to become more intense over time.

This is why the Russians have focused on their privacy actions towards a more secured cyberspace for them. Having a large percentage of Russian citizens backing their privacy acts as a response to the troubled times the country has been facing, the Government has been authorized to come up with strong and efficient legislation that can be applied to the current situation and reap some immediate benefits.

The head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Sharov has published a press release, where he highlights the failure of Twitter to comply with the requests of the Russian Government. He states that this tactic is the exact opposite to the tactic applied to requests deriving from the US Government. “Amazed at the position of the microblogging service Twitter regarding the implementation of the law of the various countries in which Twitter operates as a multinational Firm. Focusing on the in their official report data, the social network in 2014 satisfied almost 3000 requests the government of America disclosure of personal information of users. Of the 108 requests for disclosure of data on attendance of popular accounts of users directed to the administration of the social network by Roskomnadzor, (the service was) not satisfied with any one.”

The data localization law of Russia has been scheduled to be put into effect a year ahead of its initial programming, due to the ongoing tension on this matter. According to this legislation that is about to become effective in September 2015, all the companies that collect data from citizens within Russia are obliged to keep such data stored in Russia and not to servers located abroad.

This will facilitate the monitoring of the data through servers in the ground of Russia and therefore it is a huge change on the Internet. Apparently, the companies that do not agree to the terms of the new legislation will be forced to abstain from the local market and do business elsewhere. Otherwise, there will be severe penalties and actions that obstruct the companies from expanding their business within Russia.

As you can see, the current geopolitical tension and the fact that there are different reactions to similar claims done by the US and Russia has led the latter to strengthen its already strict character and concentrate on how to benefit from the Internet and protect the citizens from within.

Top/Featured Image: By Osipov Georgy Nokka [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons