Lawyer says data transfers to Roskomnadzor may be a masked attempt to bypass communications secrecy

Russian authorities want to require telecom operators to provide Roskomnadzor (RKN) with subscribers’ personal data, and to force businesses to forward anonymised data about Russians to the state at no cost.

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According to the draft government resolution, Roskomnadzor could access a wide range of subscriber data — full name, date of birth, place of residence and passport number.

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Operators would also be required to pass data about all calls and the subscriber’s voice, text and multimedia messages.

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The explanatory note says the decree is aimed at tackling ‘grey’ SIM cards registered to front individuals and used for fraud.

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In the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation заявили that Roskomnadzor would not have access to the contents of messages and calls and “the secrecy of communications will be observed”.

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Representatives of MTS назвали избыточным and noted that, some of it relates to the secrecy of communications.

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Lawyers also say that the data intended for Roskomnadzor are not needed by the agency to exercise its powers.

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“Investigating crimes against property, to which telephone fraud relates, is not within Roskomnadzor’s remit. That is, I do not see any truly pressing reasons to hand over these data to Roskomnadzor specifically,” said ForkLog partner at the Digital Rights Center, Mikhail Tretyak.

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In addition, there are far less costly and more effective ways to combat phone scammers and ‘grey’ SIM cards, the lawyer noted.

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He also noted that such data aggregation “will clearly lead to mass leaks.”

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In Tretyak’s view, the initiative may be an attempt to circumvent existing telecommunications secrecy laws, but “this time more careful than in the case of geolocation”.

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The lawyer noted that Roskomnadzor “with a very high degree of probability”, upon obtaining subscriber data, would immediately pass them to law enforcement authorities:

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“In the case of geolocation, the security forces were mentioned outright; this provoked a very wide outcry. Now, although they are the ones responsible for investigating fraud, they are not even mentioned, whereas Roskomnadzor is mentioned.”

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Additionally, the Ministry of Digital Development sent the government updated amendments to the law on personal data, writes «Ъ».

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According to the document, “personal-data operators” may be required to provide anonymised data on residents of the Russian Federation to the authorities free of charge “for state and municipal administration”.

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The Association of Big Data Market Participants says this will significantly slow the development of the big data market and AI projects in Russia.

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Last year Vladimir Putin approved the creation of a single federal population register.

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Details of what data will be in this register and whether Russians should fear for their data’s safety are in ForkLog.

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Данные россиян в одном месте: зачем нужен единый регистр и насколько это безопасно

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