Alina Kalinskova has commented on the trends behind disclosing secret correspondence

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has ruled in favour of the special services receiving data from all means of communication online and without external control. At the same time, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has submitted a draft law allowing for the transfer of information constituting secret information for messages to other persons with the consent of the user of the services. In addition, corporate clients – legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, as well as their representatives, are to be allowed access to such material, without the prior consent of specific users (employees of companies and other persons).

Junior Associate at Maxima Legal, Alina Kalinskova, commented on the situation for the publication Agency of Legal Information.

“Providing law enforcement agencies with round-the-clock remote access to databases of telecom operators clearly does not meet the criterion of necessity. Information about subscribers and connections should be provided only if there is a real risk of violation of the rights of individuals and if it is impossible to achieve a public goal by other means. Relatively frequent access to such databases could be considered legitimate, for example, in a state of emergency or martial law. Whereas in more ordinary situations, such a restriction on communication secrecy does not meet the criterion of proportionality – the operator provides access to all data at once, and not specifically to that requested by law enforcement agencies. In addition, there is a risk of abuse by authorised agencies, which are practically impossible to monitor for compliance with the legal framework for the use of information.

The main goal of the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation is the creation of a legal framework for using information about subscribers in connection with the development of the “big data” market. They can be used, for example, for targeted advertising. Although, in my opinion, in this case, it would be necessary to determine the basic conditions for protecting the privacy of users. In particular, it is necessary to establish a simple consent withdrawal mechanism. Otherwise, there is a risk that the consent will be “wired” by default into the contract with the operator, and it will be difficult to withdraw it once given”, commented Alina.

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