Roskomnadzor puts forward draft order requiring passport data for new user registration on social networks

Roskomnadzor (Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media) has written up a draft order that will require new users joining social networks and messengers to provide their passport data, address, telephone number, and email address, reports the Russian business newspaper Kommersant. 

Update. Roskomnadzor has backtracked and deemed it redundant to collect passport details and addresses during new user registration on social networks and messengers. The corresponding draft order has also been amended. However, passport data is still required to register for an account with Roskomnadzor’s unified information and authentication system.

The draft order was prepared within the framework of the law “On personal data,” which entered into partial force in March. Now, personal data operators are prohibited from posting and distributing user information published online without their consent. And as of July 1, operators will have to obtain consent from users to process their data.

Operators will be able to obtain consent through their own platforms or via Roskomnadzor’s unified information system (EIS) (this mechanism is described in the draft order). Users will be able to choose the platform through which they give consent themselves.

Users that choose the EIS mechanism will have to provide their full names, current or registered address, telephone number, and email address. This data will be verified through the government portal Gosuslugi, which will be linked to Roskomnadzor’s system. Notably, this data will be able to be transferred to “other government agencies in instances determined by federal laws.”

Roskomnadzor’s draft order doesn’t specify what information operators will be expected to collect from users who opt to provide consent through their platforms.

State Duma lawmaker Anton Gorelkin from the ruling United Russia party, who authored the amendments to the law “On personal data,” told Kommersant that Roskomnadzor’s initiative is primarily aimed at social networks and messengers.

“Neither Roskomnadzor, nor social networks have any need for such a volume of data, if they don’t plan to transfer it to law enforcement agencies or to monetize it through advertising,” says Roskomsvoboda expert Mikhail Tretyak. In his opinion, there’s also a risk of abuse by law enforcement agencies.

In 2017, State Duma lawmaker Vitaly Milonov from the United Russia party suggested banning children under the age of 14 from using social networks. He submitted a draft law to State Duma, which proposed requiring ID cards that include date of birth for new user registration on social networks. At the time, the presidential administration and the government didn’t support Milonov’s proposal.