Federation Council to ask U.S. Internet companies about protection of Russian users' data

More about cybersecurity

The Federation Council information society development commission will hold a special meeting on June 19 to discuss leaks of personal data of users of major Internet companies, Izvestiasaid on Tuesday.

Representatives of Western companies, the Federal Security Service, the Interior Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Communications (Roskomnadzor) have been invited to attend the meeting, the newspaper said.

Federation Council member Ruslan Gattarov proposed the discussion. He said he had been addressed by a number of Internet users concerned about the U.S. security services' PRISM project, which envisaged access to personal data of citizens who had accounts on renowned online servers.

In the opinion of Gattarov, Western Internet giants have breached the rights of their Russian clients and the Russian constitution by cooperating with the CIA and the NSA.

"Let them say how they store personal data and try to prove data security in the attendance of the FSB and Roskomnadzor. If there are violations, Roskomnadzor should give them a notice or fine them, and the FSB should check up on them," the Federation Council member told Izvestia.

After the Western Internet companies present their positions at the conference, Gattarov will ask Roskomnadzor to verify safety of personal data of Russian citizens.

The Washington Post said earlier the U.S. security services had direct access to servers of nine leading Internet companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

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