Personal Data Storage Act
Dmitri Boulin BBC, Moscow
The right holder of the PA Image caption is now obliged to keep the information collected on the Russians only in Russia.
In Russia, a law has entered into force, obliging the maintenance of personal data from Russians on servers in the country. In doing so, they may be transferred abroad, but only as long as they are connected to their transfer. In the rest of the time, personal information about the Rossians should be kept on natural media in Russia.
The Act (full title - " On amending certain laws of the Russian Federation to clarify the processing of personal data in information and telecommunications networks " ) was adopted last summer; its entry into force was changed to the autumn to give companies technical training. More than half of the organizations were able to do so, according to an anonymous survey of the Roskundsor. Representatives of 19 per cent of companies stated that they would not be able to meet the requirements.
A total of 2,6 million companies in the country are estimated to have been covered by the law. The exception was made for foreign airline reservation systems, embassies and the media.
The provisions of the new law were not only strict but not always clear: the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications had even opened a web page where it had tried to answer the most frequently asked questions.
The BBC Russian Service also attempted to answer the main questions relating to the new rules.
What are the personal data?
The Personal Data Act, adopted as early as 2006, defines them as " any information relating directly or indirectly to a certain or defined individual (subject) Personal data"
The law which entered into force on 1 September does not further disclose the term. Thus, personal data can mean virtually everything in the case of a particular person or if it is possible to identify a person from an extractive information.
