Google Faces Administrative Case in Russia for Breaching Personal Data Law

Russia has opened an administrative case towards Google for not storing the non-public knowledge of Russian customers in databases on Russian territory, a transfer that would see the tech large fined, communications regulator Roskomnadzor mentioned on Wednesday.

Roskomnadzor mentioned it was additionally ready for Facebook and Twitter to reply to a requirement that they localise related knowledge by July 1 or face fines, half Moscow’s wider efforts to exert higher management over Big Tech.

Russia has imposed a punitive slowdown on Twitter since March over a failure to delete content material Moscow deems unlawful and is contemplating laws that may drive overseas know-how corporations to open places of work in Russia or face penalties similar to promoting bans.

President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Wednesday Russia was not planning to dam any overseas social media websites, however that he hoped Russian social networks would supply alternatives for inventive and gifted individuals to thrive.

“We don’t intend to block anyone, we want to work with them, but there are problems, which lie in the fact that they send us away when they do not comply with our demands and Russian law,” Putin mentioned throughout a dwell query and reply session broadcast by state tv.

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

It might be fined as much as RUB 6 million (roughly Rs. 61.31 lakhs) for failing to conform, Roskomnadzor mentioned.

Such administrative instances are often heard in a Moscow district court docket.

About 600 overseas corporations have localised knowledge in Russia, a listing that Roskomnadzor beforehand mentioned contains Apple, Samsung, and PayPal.

Microsoft’s LinkedIn is blocked in Russia after a court docket discovered it breached the data-storage rule, handed in 2015, which required all knowledge about Russian residents to be saved inside the nation.

© Thomson Reuters 2021