Russia’s FSB requests online services be required to collect and provide users’ geolocation and payment information

In a draft decree, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has proposed adding users’ geolocation and payment information to the list of data that “organizers of information dissemination” (virtually any website or online service) are required to store and to provide to law enforcement agencies on request.

The document states that a lack of clear legal guidelines concerning the storage and provision of this information to federal security agencies “reduces the effectiveness of operational investigative activities [and] negatively affects the security of the Russian Federation.”

In July 2023, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree giving the FSB round-the-clock remote access to information systems and taxi-ordering databases of “organizers of information dissemination.”