Russian Federation

[RU] Personal data to be stored in Russia only

IRIS 2014-8:1/35

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

On 21 July 2014 President Putin of the Russian Federation signed into law a federal statute that amends in particular the Federal Statute “On Personal Data” (see IRIS 2006-10/29).

The focus of the changes lies in the demand that all service providers of the Internet are responsible to collect, process, and store personal data of the citizens of the Russian Federation in databases which are located on the territory of Russia. This rule which apparently would first and foremost affect foreign social networks, mail services, and services to book hotel rooms and plane tickets, has a few exceptions, such as when such processing is performed in accordance with international treaties, in the interests of the judiciary or governmental bodies of the Russian Federation, or for journalistic purposes.

The statute requires that Roskomnadzor, the governmental agency for the media and communications (see IRIS 2012-8/36), monitors if the location of processing personal data of the Russians falls under national jurisdiction. A violation of this rule becomes yet another instance when Roskomnadzor shall block access to online resources.

The amendments enter into force on 1 September 2016.