Russian authorities put global communications providers on a tight leash demanding to gain access to users’ personal data and online correspondence.
A group of deputies representing all 4 political parties of Russian's State Duma presented a project of legislations aiming to support surveillance agencies to counter threats to national security.
A separate set of amendments forces telecommunication companies, including hosting providers and website owners, to store data on “reception, transmission, processing and delivery of various electronic information” for the period of 6 months.
Microsoft confirmed its willingness to work in full compliance to the Russian legislation, applying the same practice as in other countries where company has business. “In case of a new law we will act in accordance with its requirements,” - said corporation’s representative to ITAR-TASS.
Following the acquisition of Skype in 2011, Microsoft introduced a technology of legal interception: a user can be put through to a “special” mode where the encryption keys would be generated on the application’s servers and not as it’s normally done - on user’s device.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Communications issued a special resolution requiring all the operators to install special equipment to intercept Internet communication and store the data for at least 12 hours. From July 1, 2014 Russian secret services will gain direct access to the data collected by Mail.Ru, Yandex, Rambler, Aport, Rupochta, Hotbox, ICQ, as well as foreign Gmail and Yahoo!.
