Requirements for telecom operators and Internet companies within the time limits specified by laws look impossible

As expected, President Putin signed the so-called. "Yarovaya anti-terrorist package" of two laws. The answer to the question of which of the criminal and administrative measures proposed in the package are really designed to help in the fight against the terrorist threat, and which are dictated by the fear of "color revolutions", the society will receive in the near future. But the way in which these two laws, approved by the parliament at the end of the spring session, are passed, can already be called unprecedented.

Unprecedented so far - after all, one has only to get a taste ...

The signing of one of the two documents included in the package - the very one that introduces new requirements for telecom operators and Internet providers, fraught with large financial costs - the head of state considered it necessary to accompany a long list of instructions "on certain measures of state regulation in the field of countering terrorism and ensuring public security."

This happens very rarely (if ever). Usually, the text of the law that comes into force directly answers questions related to its implementation, and if not, the law contains a reference to a by-law, which should be developed by the government and these same answers should finally be given.

What do we see in the list of instructions of the president? Another evidence that the package was written not by State Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya (“ER”) in company with Senator Viktor Ozerov, who will go down in history as authors, but somewhere in the bowels of the special services and the presidential administration itself, and was not agreed with the government. If agreed, all the problems listed below would certainly be resolved, so to speak, “on the shore”, and one way or another taken into account in the text of the law.

But they have not been resolved. And now the head of state instructs the government (with the participation of the FSB) to prepare “drafts of the necessary regulations aimed at minimizing the possible risks associated with the application” of this law, the president writes, thereby recognizing that there are risks, and measures to minimize them have not been taken.

It is necessary to "clarify the stages of application of the norms", which require large financial resources and modernization of the equipment of subjects that fall under the Federal Law, given the need to use domestic equipment, the president believes.

Vladimir Putin also believes that in connection with the application of the law in the part that concerns liability for the use by telecom operators and on the Internet of “non-certified means of encoding or encryption, it is necessary to clarify the powers of the government and federal executive bodies

It is necessary to prescribe exactly how the FSB will develop and maintain a register of Internet companies that are required to provide, at the request of special services, the information necessary to decode electronic messages, the president urges.

It is necessary to stipulate how the requirement of the law to terminate the provision of communication services will operate if the user's real data does not correspond to those specified in the subscription agreement, the president adds.

All of the above, the head of government Dmitry Medvedev and the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, must do by November 1, 2016 ...

More instructions were given to the Ministry of Industry and Trade with the Ministry of Communications - before September 1, 2016, to analyze and submit proposals on the timing, volume and, in general, the possibilities of spending to ensure that the Russian equipment and software necessary for storing and processing messages is produced. In this case, you need to make a list of production sites.

There is no equipment of its own, which could be purchased by cellular operators and Internet companies in order to implement the requirements of the law, yet - this must be understood.

Yes, the president also ordered the FSB to approve the procedure for certifying coding tools on the Internet and transferring encryption keys to the FSB by July 20, 2016.

The law comes into force on July 20, that is, in less than 2 weeks. The exception is the rules that contain a requirement for telecom operators and Internet companies to store information about the content of the messages they transmit for up to six months, they come into force on July 1, 2018.

But it is from July 20, and not from September 1 or November 1, that telecom operators are obliged for three years, and Internet providers - for a year to store information on the territory of Russia about all the facts of the messages they transmit, the so-called. metadata. From July 20, and not from September 1 or November 1, fines for non-compliance with this requirement are raised from the current 300-500 thousand rubles for legal entities to 800 thousand - 1 million rubles. Are there enough data centers on the territory of the Russian Federation to fulfill this requirement? The text of the instructions raises doubts.

From July 20, at the latest, Internet companies will be required to transmit information about additional codes at the request of special services. For refusal - a fine from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. But, judging by the text of the president's instructions, some special register of companies that are required to submit such codes should also appear. What? No one knows.

And fines for the use of non-certified coding tools from July 20, no later, will range from 60 to 300 thousand rubles. But who exactly will be fined for this, as follows from the instructions of the president, is still unknown.

Warm greetings to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, one of whose chambers went on a summer vacation, and the other - to the elections! To deputies and senators who quickly approved everything, almost without asking questions!

On July 1, the Russians closely followed the football, and then unrestrainedly celebrated the entry into the quarterfinals of the World Cup of our football team. On this day, for sure, many of us emotionally discussed the past game, but how many thought that these conversations were recorded? For another six months, our cries, sobs, words of pride and gratitude will be stored on the servers of mobile operators - even if we forget about them the next day.
The thing is that on the same day with the match with the Spaniards, another, less noticeable event happened: the final part of the once sensational "Yarovaya package" came into force. Why this law gave rise to a wave of discontent, whether it will turn the Russian Internet (or maybe the whole Russian life) upside down and what you now need to know before sending a message - we will tell about all this in our material.

What was included in this "package"?

For the first time, the Yarovaya law was discussed back in April 2016. Then the State Duma deputy from United Russia, Irina Yarovaya, and the now forgotten senator from the same party, Viktor Ozerov, submitted a package of amendments to parliament, allegedly designed to protect citizens from terrorism. Some provisions of the bill turned out to be so radical that they were removed from the final version: for example, it was proposed to deprive the citizenship of those convicted of terrorism and prohibit people from leaving the country who did not extinguish a criminal record for extremism.

The bill caused a huge public outcry. The petition against its adoption on the change.org portal collected more than 600,000 signatures, and on the official website of the ROI, in less than a month, 100,000 votes were collected, which are necessary for the consideration of the appeal by the Open Government. A series of protest rallies took place across the country, and Internet industry experts announced a real disaster that awaits Runet if the law is passed. Ordinary users did not stand aside - the ill-fated package became an occasion for mocking videos and many memes.

Don't rustle!

Nevertheless, the law passed 3 readings in the State Duma, received the approval of the Government and the Federation Council, and on July 7 of the same year the last bastion fell - it was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Most of the amendments came into force in less than 2 weeks - on July 20. Among them:

• Criminal punishment for “non-information”, justification of terrorism in social networks, “inclination” to riots, introduction of an article for “international terrorism”;
• Increasing the terms of punishment under "extremist" articles, reducing the age of responsibility for them to 14 years;
• Checking by carriers of any parcels for the presence of prohibited items;
• A ban on missionary work for unregistered organizations and a ban on preaching outside churches, cemeteries and other designated places;
• Providing the so-called "encryption keys" of data to law enforcement agencies by court order.

The most heated debate flared up regarding the point about storing user traffic. Initially, it was planned to store calls, messages, metadata about them (that is, information about calls and messages made) and all Internet traffic for 3 years. However, it turned out that this requirement is not feasible - there are no such capacious servers in the world, Russia does not produce enough electricity to power them, and the implementation costs were estimated at five trillion rubles (for comparison, in 2015 the entire Internet industry earned 1.7 trillion rubles , and the income of the federal budget of Russia amounted to 14.7 trillion rubles). As a result, it was decided:

• From July 1, 2018, store all phone calls, SMS messages and metadata about them for six months;
• From October 1 of the same year, telecom operators store correspondence, video and audio files and personal data of users for a month. Annually, the storage period must be increased by at least 15%, gradually bringing it up to six months.

How will the Yarovaya law affect our lives?

But what does the new law promise ordinary people like you and me? First of all, speaking about it, they remember the rise in price of the Internet. The first confirmations appeared already in June of this year: most Russian providers raised their prices by an average of 10%. The operators presented this in a veiled way: they say that we are not only raising prices, but also the speed on your tariff. Considering that data warehouses will need to be increased annually by law, such indexing will apparently become commonplace. In addition, you need to be prepared for a gradual rise in price or the abolition of unlimited tariffs: after all, it is the volume of our traffic that costs operators a pretty penny.

A significant increase in the cost of postage was also predicted. According to the calculations of the Russian Post, equipping all of its 42,000 branches with special X-ray units for the required inspection of parcels would cost half a trillion rubles. As a compromise, the carrier offered to accept all parcels in an open video, but this still would not solve the problem of delivering goods from abroad: no one will (or at least should not) open the box with the phone sent from China. As a result, the provision on the inspection of shipments has been in effect for two years, and the internal rules for sending neither Russian Post nor other private companies have changed significantly. In fact, the norm of the law is simply not enforced.

However, the rise in prices for services is far from the only negative consequence of the Yarovaya package. In June, the Russian company MFI-soft (previously it produced equipment for Roskomnadzor) presented prices for certified data centers for operators. The cost of the server, which allows storing the traffic of 7-8 thousand subscribers, was estimated at 37 million rubles. In fact, this is several annual incomes collected from such subscribers. And if large federal operators with other sources of income can still find this money, then small regional providers simply have nowhere to get such an amount at once. According to the law, foreign analogues of equipment cannot be used either. In fact, this may mean the ruin of small providers and the monopolization of the market, in which large operators will buy up their subscriber base from local ones. Such a scenario will make our Internet one step closer to the Chinese: several large operators are much easier to control, especially if you suddenly need to disconnect the Russian segment of the Internet from the world.

Finally, the Yarovaya law affected the work of some services in Russia. Now, any company that uses any encryption protocol in its application will have to, by a court decision, provide the security authorities with a certain “key” that will allow access to the user’s correspondence and other data. It was this provision of the law that became the reason for blocking the Telegram messenger in Russia (by the way, do not forget to subscribe to our “blocked” channel). Moreover, representatives of the service were even ready to provide the FSB with the very correspondence of suspected terrorists, but the special services needed precisely the “keys”. In general, you know the continuation of the story.

So, what do we do now?

We should not delude ourselves that the Yarovaya law is needed only to ensure our security. The fight against extremism is understood by our security forces very broadly. For example, single mother Yekaterina Vologzheninova received a year of compulsory work for posts on VKontakte supporting the Ukrainian military. Engineer Andrei Bubeev was sentenced to two years and three months in a colony-settlement for two reposts of opposition articles. And the blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky, who played Pokemon Go in the temple, was put on the list of terrorists and extremists, blocking all his bank accounts. In general, there is reason to think about how not to be in a similar situation.

Even during the discussion of the Yarovaya bill, many providers talked about the uselessness of the transmitted data - they say that 80% of the traffic on the network is encrypted anyway, and it will only take up space. This is a pure truth. Most modern sites (including ours) work using the secure https protocol. If you go to such a site, the provider will only be able to find out about the fact of connection to it - and that's it. The fact that you are reading this particular article, and not choosing a scooter for your child, no one will know.

But if you want no one to even know what sites you visit, and all your traffic is encrypted, you should use a VPN. In this case, Comrade Major will only see how you connected to a server somewhere in the Netherlands or Hong Kong. In addition to encrypting traffic, a VPN has another important advantage - it will allow you to use services and sites blocked in Russia (Telegram, again). There are a lot of VPN services on the market, most of them are very inexpensive, and some are completely free; we will tell you about their types and features in a separate article (very soon).

However, a VPN will not save you if the FSB requires access to your data from an outside company, and not from the provider. The so-called "Information Dissemination Organizers" from the Roskomnadzor registry must also store your data for six months. This list has:

• "In contact with";
• "Classmates";
• Mail.Ru services (mail, cloud, etc.);
• Yandex (mail and cloud);
• less popular services and sites.

If you use any products from the ARI registry, be prepared for the fact that, according to a court decision, your files and correspondence will be in the hands of special services. Perhaps you should use these services more carefully and not trust them with any personal information; this also applies to phone calls and SMS. Or it makes sense to abandon such resources in favor of those that are not yet in the registry: Google, Facebook, Viber and others.

Your correspondence will be completely safe if you use a messenger with end-to-end encryption: this technology allows you to transfer data to the interlocutor's phone bypassing the company's servers. This feature is implemented, for example, in WhatsApp, Telegram secret chats and Vkontakte calls.

In general, Mrs. Yarovaya and the Russian authorities greatly improve our Internet literacy and even instill an important habit: you also need to protect yourself on the Internet. For this, perhaps, even we should thank them. And by the way, we will tell you a lot more interesting and useful things about technologies in Russia and around the world, so subscribe to the Zen channel, the Telegram channel and the Inspector Gadgets mailing list!

The Yarovaya Package is one of the most ambitious documents adopted by the State Duma in recent years. Some of its provisions have already been reflected in normative acts, the beginning of another - in the summer of 2018.

What is the “Yarovaya law” when the most controversial part of the high-profile initiative regarding the storage of information about telephone conversations and personal correspondence of Russians comes into force?

Authors of amendments

The sensational package of amendments was named after one of the authors, State Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya, who participated in the development of such legislative initiatives as criminal prosecution for libel, tougher sanctions for violating the rules for holding rallies, and the “law on media-foreign agents.”

Senator Viktor Ozerov worked on the amendments together with Yarovaya. At that time, both parliamentarians headed security committees: Yarovaya - in the lower house, Ozerov - in the upper one. Four legislators were already listed as co-authors of the voting procedure: Aleksey Pushkov and Nadezhda Gerasimova joined the list of initiators.

Anti-terrorist "Yarovaya law" - what is it?

In simple terms, the “Yarovaya package” is two federal laws containing changes to regulations (designed, as conceived by the authors, to prevent manifestations of terrorism):

• No. 374-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Countering Terrorism” and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Regarding the Establishment of Additional Measures to Counter Terrorism and Ensuring Public Security” dated 07/06/2016;
• No. 375-FZ “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation in terms of establishing additional measures to counter terrorism and ensure public safety”, dated 07/06/2016.

What kind of innovations does the Yarovaya law contain?

The essence of the amendments

The first document (No. 374-FZ) made adjustments to the laws on the FSB, foreign intelligence, weapons, the Housing Code and many other acts. Its provisions expanded the powers of the security forces, toughened responsibility for extremism, the rules of postal forwarding, and cargo clearance.

So, in the new version of the law No. 35-FZ "On countering terrorism" dated 06.03.2006:

• article 5 was supplemented by a new part (4.1) on the creation of anti-terrorist commissions in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the decisions of which are binding;
• Article 5.2 was introduced to clarify the actions and powers of local authorities in the fight against extremism and terrorism;
• Article 11 includes part 5, which expands the grounds for introducing the CTO regime.

The same law amended the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, and with them a ban:

• disseminate religious teachings in premises intended for housing (an exception is the conduct of rituals and ceremonies) (part 3 of article 17);
• on the activities of missionaries, if it is aimed at committing extremist actions, threatens others, etc. (Part 3.2, Article 22).

Changes to the communication law

Innovations in Law No. 126-FZ "On Communications" dated 07.07.2003 and their essence for cellular operators and Internet service providers lies in the established requirement to store user messages (voice and text messages), photos, videos, etc. transmitted to them, as well as information about a telephone conversation or correspondence of subscribers. The location of the repository is within the country. The conditions - the volume of traffic and the storage period - are being developed by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The storage period for the content of messages is up to six months. Information about their dispatch, delivery, processing, etc. should be kept in storage longer:

• three years - information about calls of mobile subscribers;
• one year - data on the electronic correspondence of Russians.

The introduced paragraph 1 of part 1.1 of article 64 of the law on telecom operators obliges them to provide intelligence services with information about telephone conversations of their clients. A similar requirement, but regarding the Internet activity of Russians hidden from the general public, contains a new paragraph (3.1) of Article 10.1 of Law No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” dated 07/27/2006. And clause 4.1 obliges domain owners, providers and all those falling under the concept of "information dissemination organizer" to transfer encryption keys to the security forces to decode user messages.

Failure to comply with the requirements of the security authorities will result in a fine. What will be its size, clarifies part 2.1 introduced in Article 13.31 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation:

• citizens will pay from 3,000 to 5,000 rubles;
• from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles - officials;
• from 800,000 to 1 million rubles - companies.

Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Another normative act included in the Yarovaya package, Law No. 375, supplemented the list of criminally punishable acts:

• failure to report to law enforcement officers about a crime of a terrorist nature (committed, being committed or planned). The most severe sanction for this is imprisonment for 12 months. A citizen who has not informed about such an act committed by his spouse or close relative will not be held liable;
• international terrorism with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

In the updated version of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the list of crimes for which criminal liability comes from the age of 14 has been expanded:

• participation in a terrorist organization and its activities (part 2 of article 205.4 and part 2 of article 205.5, respectively);
• skills training for use in planned terrorist activities (art. 205.3);
• failure to report a crime (Article 205.6);
• an act of international terrorism (art. 361).

When does the Yarovaya law come into force?

In Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official text of the Yarovaya Law was published on July 8, 2016. On July 20 of the same year, the main part of the innovations, including changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, began to work.

July 1, 2018 is the day specified in the Federal Law when the law of Irina Yarovaya comes into force regarding the requirement to store data on the remote communication of Russians. However, now the Government of the Russian Federation is discussing the possibility of postponing the entry into force of the law for several months. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. The need for a delay is associated with the development of by-laws that will determine the volumes and periods of data storage under this law.

According to the "big four" cellular operators, the organization of a message storage alone will require more than 2.2 trillion rubles. Ultimately, the costs of companies will lead to a sharp increase in tariffs. The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications allowed a three-fold increase in the cost of cellular services.

On the last day of work, the State Duma of the sixth convocation adopted one of the most resonant bills of recent years.

How the law was passed

The bill was submitted to the State Duma on April 7 by deputy Irina Yarovaya and member of the Federation Council Viktor Ozerov. They explained the initiative with "new problems" with international terrorism. In the first reading, the draft was adopted on May 13.

In the second and immediately in the third reading, the draft was adopted on June 24. The final amendments were distributed to the parliamentarians a few minutes before the discussion. As a result, the project was noticeably relaxed. 287 deputies voted for the draft in the third reading, 147 voted against, one abstained.

What is the purpose of the amendments

Allow employees of the FSB and the Foreign Intelligence Service to “receive free of charge from government agencies and state non-budgetary funds” access to information systems and databases.

To classify as search activities the receipt by law enforcement agencies of "computer information", including access to e-mail, SMS messages.

To oblige postal operators to “take measures” to ensure that weapons and other “dangerous” items are not sent by mail.

To increase for telecom operators and Internet companies the period of storage of information about the facts of reception, transmission, delivery and (or) processing of voice information and text messages, as well as images, sounds or other user messages up to three years (now - six months). On the day the law was adopted, the authors made concessions and agreed to increase this period to only one year.

Regulate missionary activity. For example, it is forbidden to preach in living quarters.

Tougher penalties for terrorism and extremism, and supplement the Criminal Code with new elements of crimes in this category.

Deprivation of citizenship of those who become involved in terrorist and extremist activities. Those suspected of such involvement should be banned from traveling abroad.

By the second reading, it was decided to abandon these types of punishment.

Imprisonment for a term of five to ten years for "inducing, recruiting and otherwise involving" in committing mass riots.

Imprisonment from 10 to 20 years for creating a terrorist organization.

The number of criminal articles, the responsibility for which comes from the age of 14, is increasing.

Fine for legal entities for using the media and the Internet to disclose state secrets - from 400 thousand to 1 million rubles.

What are the dangers of amendments and how they were accepted

The proposed rules on deprivation of citizenship do not comply with Art. 6 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (“a citizen of the Russian Federation cannot be deprived of his citizenship or the right to change it”).

None of the heads of other responsible Duma committees was involved in the development of Irina Yarovaya's amendments.

The innovations came as a surprise to religious leaders: they were not consulted when drafting the law.

The legal department of the State Duma noted that the increased punishment for complicity in the commission of terrorist crimes in some cases will lead to a more severe punishment than for their commission.

According to telecom operators, the implementation of the requirements of the bill will deprive them of their net profit and leave the budget without tax deductions.

Thus, the "Yarovaya package" provides that authorities will be able to deprive people of Russian citizenship for some terrorist and extremist crimes. The list of these crimes includes, for example, an article for calling for separatism or for inciting hatred and enmity - the last one of those for which you can go to jail for reposting a picture on a social network. Also, citizenship can be deprived for work in international organizations in which Russia is not represented. However, the passport can be taken away only from those who have the citizenship of another country or a guarantee that they will receive it.

Another point of anti-terrorist innovations is deprivation of citizenship or a criminal term for failure to inform.

A new article (205.6) is being introduced into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation called "non-reporting of a crime." According to it, those who did not inform law enforcement agencies about impending crimes will be held accountable - from international terrorism to an armed rebellion against the territorial integrity of Russia.

People who did not report the preparation and commission of a crime by their spouse or close relative are exempted from liability under the article.

In addition, another article is being introduced in Russia, according to which you can to plant for posts in social networks. Calls for terrorist activities and justification of terrorism on the Internet are equated with such calls in the media. The maximum punishment is seven years in prison and deprivation of citizenship.

Legislators also offer those convicted of terrorism and reposting extremist materials on the Web prohibit leaving the country.

One more item - operators will keep records of phone calls for months and all correspondence of users. Law enforcement officers will be able to study this data. Encrypted correspondence can also be read.

Also introduced tightening in the religious sphere. Now only representatives of registered organizations will be able to preach in specially designated places. Some ideas will be banned from preaching - for example, those that call for extremism, force people to refuse medical care, give their property to a religious organization, and others. For violations, administrative fines are provided - including large ones, up to a million rubles.

A new article will appear in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - "Act of International Terrorism". It will be used to judge those who accused of committing a terrorist attack outside of Russia, as a result of which Russian citizens were killed or injured, as well as those who finance the preparation of terrorist attacks. As punishment, the article allows for life imprisonment.

The bill also proposes an amendment that would will oblige postal employees to ensure that there is nothing prohibited in the parcels. The prohibited list includes: money, weapons, drugs, poisons, perishable products and substances that can harm postal employees or damage other packages. It is proposed to check the parcels with the help of X-rays, metal detectors and other similar devices. The existing law states that employees can detain and even destroy packages with prohibited items.