Russia has put Apple and Microsoft on a state registry obliging firms to keep user messages and hand them to the security services whenever asked, according to Bloomberg.
Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, placed the two U.S. tech giants on its list of “organizers of information dissemination” citing database the regulator maintains. Companies listed in the registry must retain the written, audio and video messages of users in Russia and hand the data to security services on demand, according to Bloomberg.
They also have to keeprecords on their users and on how those users’ messages were sent, and keep them inside Russia for three year. Bloomberg says that companies that ignore the rules risk penalties and, eventually, limits on how people in Russia can reach their services.
This isn’t Apple’s first brush with Russian agencies. In August the company’s anti-monopoly watchdog opened a case against Apple after the tech giant failed to comply with a warning related to the pre-installation of Russia’s MAX messaging app and Russian app store on its devices, reported Reuters (a subscription is required to read the article).
And in June it was reported that Apple had removed several Russian mobile apps related to the Russian Internet company, VK. At the time Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, warned Apple that Russian authorities will be in touch to discuss the apps and their removal.
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