Russia fines 4 Western firms for not storing knowledge domestically

What simply occurred? Russia reportedly fined Airbnb, Pinterest, UPS, and Twitch for not storing knowledge they collected from Russian customers on servers positioned inside its borders. The identical regulation led to the nation fully blocking LinkedIn a number of years in the past.

In accordance with a brand new report, a Moscow court docket has fined a number of Western firms for refusing to retailer private knowledge collected from Russian residents on servers positioned within the nation.

Airbnb, Pinterest, and Twitch have reportedly been fined 2 million roubles ($38,113) every, with UPS receiving a 1 million rouble ($19,057) nice. These sums sound a bit ludicrous contemplating that every one of those firms reported multi-billion greenback revenues final yr.

Russia’s knowledge localization regulation entered into impact in 2015, mandating that any tech firm working within the nation retailer all knowledge on Russian customers on native servers.

It is not the primary time fines have been handed all the way down to firms as a consequence of this regulation. In 2021, Russian authorities fined WhatsApp 4 million rubles ($53,880 on the time), Fb 15 million rubles ($201,975), and Twitter 17 million rubles ($290,444). In 2016, the social community LinkedIn received banned inside the nation for violating the identical regulation.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, introduced final month that it had additionally opened a case in opposition to Apple. The corporate faces a nice of as much as 6 million roubles as this may solely be its first offense.

Convincing firms to retailer consumer knowledge on servers inside Russia would possibly show to be a difficult activity, particularly contemplating the sanctions the nation is dealing with. IBM and Microsoft have been shedding most of their staff in Russia, with the latter even blocking customers within the area from downloading Home windows from its web site.