MOSCOW COURT FINES GOOGLE $165,000 FOR FAILING TO STORE PERSONAL DATA ON ITS USERS

Wed 15 October 2023:

A Moscow court on Tuesday fined U.S. tech giant Google 15 million Russian rubles ($165,000) for violating laws on data localization.

Under the law on localization, IT companies are required to store Russian users’ data on servers inside Russia.

Google was also fined $3 million rubles in August 2021 under the same offense.

Google also was ordered to pay a 3 million ruble (about $32,800) fine in August for failing to delete allegedly false information about the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia can do little to collect the fine, however, as Google’s Russia business was effectively shut down last year after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. The company has said it filed for bankruptcy in Russia after its bank account was seized by the authorities, leaving it unable to pay staff and suppliers.

Russian courts also have fined Apple and the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia.

Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities have taken measures to stifle any criticism of the military campaign.

Some critics have received severe punishments. Opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced this year to 25 years in prison for treason stemming from speeches he made against Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Sasha Skochilenko, an artist and musician from St. Petersburg, is on trial on charges of spreading false information about the military for replacing supermarket price tags with protest slogans. Prosecutors have asked for an eight-year prison sentence for her.

Employment-focused U.S. social network Linkedin was blocked in Russia in August 2016 after failing to transfer Russian user data to servers located in the country. Twitter and Facebook also remain banned.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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