Russian Internet Oppression based Paranoia

Know your domain
Why do we need a ban on registration using foreign mail
Russians will be banned from registering on domestic sites using foreign mail. Such amendments to the legislation were adopted by the State Duma in the second reading. It will now be possible to create an account in only four ways: by indicating a phone number, by going through authorization through the State Services, the Unified Biometric System and “other information systems”, for example, VK and Tinkoff ID. The new rules will come into effect in December. Parliamentarians claim that they discussed the mechanism with companies, but did not specify with which ones. Meanwhile, some industry associations and lawyers have questions about the initiative. What is business worried about? And what should citizens do with old accounts now? Ivan Khorushevsky understood.

The amendments are aimed at protecting the personal data of Russians, the deputies explain the idea. According to them, registration by foreign mail is a gap “through which information about citizens gets into the public domain.”

Biometrics, “Gosuslugi”, Russian ID-services, according to legislators, are much more reliable. The argument is very controversial, notes Igor Bederov, owner of the Internet Investigation Company: “From the point of view of anonymity, privacy of users, there will always be a human factor, negligent operatives who covet an extra penny and sell this kind of information. There, access to all our state functions that we can order, receive – registration of certificates, marriages, divorces, registration of children, enrolling them in school, registration of property.

How the Russian web space is separated from the world on a voluntary basis
It is noteworthy that although the State Duma offers citizens four ways of registering, this choice is conditional. Indeed, in order to create an account on the “Gosuslugi”, you need to specify a phone number, and to create a profile in the Unified Biometric System, you need to go through authorization through the “Gosuslugi”. It is no coincidence that users have so few options, Roman Yankovsky, a lawyer and partner at Tomashevskaya & Partners, believes:

“There is such a chain that there are absolutely no anonymous accounts left in the Russian segment of the Internet. This, of course, is a trend towards the isolation of the Runet, given that amendments are being considered that, in principle, prohibit foreign services from using the data of Russians.

At the same time, the State Duma is reassuring: the law will not have retroactive effect. That is, you won’t have to change the mail address, even foreign, on an existing account in the State Services. But since December, in order to register, for example, in a Russian online store, one cannot do without biometrics, a phone number or VK ID. However, this mechanism is easy to bypass, says Viktor Rykov, Pen & Paper lawyer:

“I go to the site, I try to register. With the help of gmail.com from the territory of Russia, I can’t do this. If I turn on the VPN, then the site perceives me as being outside of Russia, and the site owner will not be able to check if the user is physically located in Russia, and he will trust the IP address.

Yuri Litvinenko on the difficulties of tracking blocking in Russia
But in any case, businesses will have to follow the rules. Banks have already turned out to be dissatisfied with this – a letter was sent to the State Duma criticizing the initiative. The document states that when entering the applications of credit organizations, users will now have to go through authorization through the “Gosuslugi” every time, which will make the process less convenient. But this is not the only problem, complains the head of the Electronic Money Association Viktor Dostov:

“We know that many banking applications use Apple or Samsung tools to identify a customer, for example, using a face. It also raises the question of whether it would be legal for any application of Sberbank, Alfa-Bank or anyone else to continue to use such constructions after the advent of the law.”

True, punishments for non-compliance with the rules are not yet provided. The State Duma clarified that they will appear later, after considering law enforcement practice.