Anonymity in messengers will be under. The draft law on anonymity in messengers: expert opinions

Georgy Mosalov, Anastasia Rumyantseva, Polina Poletaeva

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved a government decree on the rules for registration in messengers. Now services will be required to verify user data with operator databases cellular... Thus, only the person who is registered will be able to use the application. phone number... Experts are confident that such measures will allow the authorities to prevent the commission of illegal actions using anonymous accounts in instant messengers. At the same time, this decree will not affect the activities of the services themselves and the convenience of their customers, experts are convinced.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the rules for registering users in instant messengers by phone number. The document was published on the portal of legal information. It will come into force in 180 days - May 5, 2019.

According to the text of the legal act, the messenger is obliged to confirm the data about the user's number by sending a request to the appropriate cellular operator, which, within 20 minutes after the request, must confirm or deny the presence of the user in its databases.

If the presence of the user in the subscriber bases is confirmed, cellular company is obliged to enter in its database information about the messenger and a unique identification code that was assigned to the user by the application. In this case, already registered users will also have to go through authorization.

“In case of non-receipt of information from the operator within the prescribed period ... or receipt of information about the absence of information about the subscriber in the databases, identification is considered unsuccessful,” the legislative act emphasizes.

Upon termination of the contract with the subscriber, the operator is obliged to notify those messengers in which the user was registered within 24 hours. After that, the application will have to start the re-identification process.

• RIA News

Previously, to register in the messenger, it was enough to simply download the application and enter the code sent in an SMS message, reminded the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov. He stressed that in this case it was possible to register to any number, including someone else's.

“The possibility of anonymous communication in messengers makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to investigate crimes. The current government decree is a necessary step towards creating a safe communication environment for both citizens and the state as a whole, "Izvestia quotes Zharov.

The head of Roskomnadzor clarified that the owners of messengers are subject to administrative liability for violation of the new resolution, but did not explain what it would be.

"The state must have levers of influence"

The state seeks to regulate the use of instant messengers, since with their help "coordination of illegal actions" is often carried out, said Alexander Yushchenko, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on information policy, information technology and communications, in an interview with RT.

“Either this is trade or the dissemination of prohibited information. Phenomena such as, for example, extremism, which is also spread in instant messengers, have an extremely negative effect on immature young minds. The state should have some leverage to influence or prevent this, ”he said.

So, according to the FSB, in 2017, 25 terrorist attacks were prevented in Russia, while the terrorists managed to carry out four attacks. At the same time, all terrorist attacks, according to the ministry's statements, were coordinated, including from the territory of Syria.

The new law solves the problem of matching the messenger user with a real person, said Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Otkritie Broker.

"If a crime occurs using social networks, for example, someone published illegal information on the VKontakte network, you can formally link an account with a specific person ... In messengers, this cannot be done yet," he said in a conversation with RT.

At the same time, the decree will not significantly affect the activities of messengers, security expert Alexander Vlasov is convinced.

“This will not affect the work of instant messengers in any way, because the very same WhatsApp and Viber must first inform themselves that the user is obliged to log in only to the number with which he is registered,” Vlasov said in an interview with RT.

"Nothing will change for users"

Law-abiding users will also not notice changes when using applications, Arseniy Shcheltsin, an expert on the digital economy, is convinced.

“As far as users are concerned, I don't think it will affect them in any way. I mean ordinary users that do not go beyond the law, do not distribute illegal content and do not conduct illegal activities, creating extremist pages, groups and dialogues ... The main task of the decree is to preemptively analyze the page and determine its link to a person, "he stressed in a conversation with RT.

The fact that there will be no changes for users was also told by RT in the press service of Megafon. The company also noted that it is ready to comply with the order.

“We are ready to implement the government’s decree, as it was adopted in pursuance of the law that came into force. In fact, it introduces already existing de facto relationships into a legal channel, when users of instant messengers are identified by their phone number. Nothing will change for users, ”added the press service of Megafon.

However, this regulation can create some problems for users. This was told to RT by the former partner of Pavel Durov in social network VKontakte Anton Rosenberg.

“Nobody wants to wait 20 minutes for registration. Not all users, in principle, are ready to indicate their first and last names, not to mention the full names, and judging by the text, when indicating, for example, Vanya instead of Ivan, registration should be refused, ”he said.

Rosenberg also pointed out that illegal citizens will be able to bypass the new norm by registering an account in the messenger on a SIM card of another country.

Recall that now the activities of instant messengers are regulated by amendments to the law "On Information, information technology and on the protection of information ”, which entered into force on January 1, 2018. The rule of registration using a code in an SMS message, for example, is provided for by this particular legal act.

Also, instant messengers are obliged to provide users with the opportunity to refuse to receive messages from other subscribers, limit the dissemination of illegal information and allow state structures carry out mass mailing of messages.

On amendments to the federal law "On information, information technology and information protection". This document, in fact, proposes to prohibit anonymity in messengers by introducing the mandatory identification of the user by the telecom operator.

Ban on anonymous

According to the explanatory note to the document, this bill is intended to regulate the activities of exchange organizers by email, that is, messengers.

"The bill defines the concept of an exchange organizer instant messaging and imposes on this subject the obligation to ensure the transmission of electronic messages only to those users of the Internet, who are identified in the manner established, "- said in the text of the draft.

Thus, a user who is not identified by all the rules will not be able to use the messenger services and exchange messages.

User identification must be carried out by telecom operators on the basis of the number mobile phone under an agreement concluded with the organizer of the exchange of electronic messages.

In addition, messengers must provide the user with a technical opportunity to refuse to receive messages from another user, as well as be ready to provide mass mailing at the initiative of public authorities. Also, the bill separately spelled out the obligation to ensure the confidentiality of transmitted electronic messages.

The organizer of the exchange of electronic messages is obliged to restrict the sending and transmission of messages containing information, the dissemination of which is contrary to the laws of the country. As told Interfax one of the authors of the project, such information includes, for example, a call to participate in unauthorized street protests.

If the messenger refuses to comply with the requirements of the authorized federal executive body, it may face blocking on the territory Russian Federation... In addition, in parallel, bill on administrative fines for failure to fulfill obligations: 3-5 thousand rubles. - for individuals, 30-50 thousand rubles. - for officials and from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. - for legal entities.

Both laws are expected to enter into force on January 1, 2018, by which time the organizers of e-mail exchanges are obliged to bring their activities in line with the requirements set out in the legal document.

The press service of the Media Communication Union (MKS) Gazeta.Ru was told that

the need for a draft law on the regulation of instant messengers is caused by the existence of legal relations outside the framework of Russian legislation, which includes communication in messengers.

For users similar services there are no tools to protect their rights, for example, in case of receiving threats or mailings in messengers that the user did not subscribe to. With the introduction of instant messengers into the legal field, users can finally expect that their rights will be respected.

The introduced bill as a whole is based on those expert developments that the ISS proposed, and was finalized by the deputies, taking into account the additions and recommendations of industry regulators.

"De facto, most messengers already use a subscriber number when identifying a subscriber, and he will not be required to take any additional actions when the law comes into force," the ISS explained.

The PR director also confirmed to Gazeta.Ru that

most messengers already ask for a phone number during registration, so the State Duma is essentially “formalizing what already exists”.

“The bottom line is that the country has certain legislation in the field of communications. But the world is changing, new forms of communication are appearing, which must be brought under the existing laws, ”Lidov explained.

The law will only affect ARI

The law, if adopted, will apply only to those messengers that are in the register of information dissemination organizers (ORI), formed by Roskomnadzor. At the time of the release of the note, there are 81 resources in the ORI list, including services, VKontakte and some others.

The main part of the list consists exclusively of Russian websites, but in the spring of 2017, the Swiss messenger Threema appeared in it, which supposedly has increased personal data security thanks to end-to-end encryption.

In early May, Roskomnadzor blocked the well-known Chinese messenger WeChat in Russia, adding it to the register of prohibited resources. A few days later, the owners of the messenger provided the data requested by the supervisory authority, and access to it was restored.

Popular in Russia Viber messengers, WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook Messenger there are no organizers of information dissemination in this register yet. The spokesman previously declined to disclose whether the agency had contacted these companies with a request to provide data for inclusion in the ARI list.

Today, the State Duma adopted in the final third reading amendments to the law "On Information" and the Administrative Code, introducing sanctions for web resources for access to prohibited sites. They will apply to all proxy and VPN services, as well as anonymous networks such as Tor. Also in the third reading, the Duma approved the law on regulating the activities of electronic messaging services (messengers) and measures aimed at combating illegal SIM cards. All of these changes were adopted despite criticism from industry experts and business representatives.

Amendments by deputies Maxim Kudryavtsev (United Russia), Nikolai Ryzhak (Fair Russia) and Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) suggest that Roskomnadzor will create a list of tools to bypass the blocking of prohibited resources, identify their hosting providers and other persons who ensure their work. Providers who receive a notification from Roskomnadzor will be required to take action within 30 days or independently send to the department an application for connection to the register of prohibited sites and readiness to block the resources specified in it. If the service owners do not fulfill the requirement, they themselves face blocking. At the same time, the owners of programs, networks and services who use them for clients with whom they are in labor relations will not fall under the sanctions.

The mechanism for restricting access to information resources on the basis of decisions of Roskomnadzor, it is implemented in order to prevent the occurrence of harmful consequences from the use of "means of bypassing locks" and does not exclude the possibility of subsequent appeal against such decisions in court. At the same time, it will not Roskomnadzor, but the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to identify the anonymizers.

Search engines are also required to apply to connect to the registry of blocked sites within 30 days at the request of the agency. Having connected to the registry, the search engine is obliged to stop issuing links to prohibited sites and their pages at the request of users on the territory of the Russian Federation. Failure to fulfill this obligation will result in a fine for citizens in the amount of 5 thousand rubles, for officials - 50 thousand rubles, for legal entities - 500-700 thousand rubles.

The amended law was passed despite criticism from representatives of the Internet industry and business, who considered such regulation excessive and indicated a violation of the rights of citizens enshrined in the Constitution. "Given the rapid development of the Internet and services associated with it, it is impossible to understand what exactly falls under the definition of the bill," - stressed in Rambler & Co. “Even if a link to a resource will be in the search results, this does not mean that a user by clicking on the link will be able to access the resource if the resource has been blocked by a telecom operator or otherwise,” Yandex pointed out. The law comes into force on November 1, 2017.

Also today, the deputies in the third reading adopted a law banning the anonymous use of instant messengers - it will come into force on January 1, 2018. Its authors Marina Mukabenova (United Russia), Oleg Nikolaev (Fair Russia) and Aleksandra Yushchenko (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) suggested that the owners of messengers enter into agreements with telecom operators - this would allow the user to be identified by the phone number. In addition, messengers will have to restrict the sending of messages at the request of government authorities. The procedure for such a restriction must be determined by the government.

These amendments have also been criticized: in May, the Russian Association for Electronic Communications indicated that the proposed changes were redundant and could be implemented within the framework of current legislation. The association also noted that the definition of "messenger" used in the draft law may include any sites with the ability to correspond.

Another innovation was the adoption by the deputies of amendments toughening the fight against illegal SIM cards. Now individuals will not be able to pay bills for mobile communication provided by SIM cards issued for legal entities, without providing their own personal data. In turn, mobile operators were able to check information about subscribers using unified system identification and authentication, a unified portal of public services and other systems of government agencies.

MOSCOW, June 14 - RIA Novosti. The draft law on the regulation of the work of instant messengers passed the first reading in the State Duma. The document prohibiting anonymity in instant messaging services was supported by 356 deputies, two opposed, one abstained.

The bill providing for amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information" was submitted to the lower house of parliament at the end of May by deputies from three factions: Marina Mukabenova (United Russia), Oleg Nikolaev (Fair Russia) and Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party).

The document obliges the organizers of instant messaging to ensure the transmission of messages only to those users who are identified in accordance with the law. To do this, the authors of the bill propose to assign identification numbers to subscribers on the basis of contracts that messengers will have to conclude with telecom operators.

In addition, the organizers of messaging are supposed to be obliged to provide users with a technical opportunity to refuse to receive messages from other users, as well as to provide the ability to send messages on the initiative of government agencies.

It should also be possible to restrict the distribution and transmission of messages with data that violate Russian law. If these requirements are not met, the telecom operator may restrict access to the messenger by the decision of the authorized body and on the basis of a court decision.

Subscriber identification

The adoption of the bill completes the cycle of forming a subscriber identification system, said the head of the Committee on Information Policy Leonid Levin.

"Since today the volume of information transmitted through messengers has already exceeded the volume of information transmitted by traditional telecom operators, and also due to the fact that the owners have not proposed any measures to regulate their activities on their own, it was decided to support this bill," he said speaking at the plenary session.

"At the same time, messengers remain outside the legal framework. In fact, the legality of the messenger's work depends on arbitrary decisions its owners, "the deputy said.

At the same time, according to him, some provisions of the bill need to be adjusted. So, for the second reading, the deputies intend, in particular, to clarify the concept of an instant messaging service, as well as to prescribe the obligation of their organizers to make mass mailings at the initiative of state authorities.

He drew attention to the fact that even in the USA there are no use codes messenger whatsapp... "Because the so-called RSA algorithm is used. This is a mathematical model, until no one has cracked it. A person who once opens this model will receive a Nobel Prize. And we are talking about Roskomnadzor blocking something," - the deputy considers.

He explained his idea on the example of an apartment building where everyone uses Wi-Fi telephone connection and a huge stream of encrypted communication goes to the IP address. "Roskomndazor will simply have no idea what is encrypted there, it will never determine where the client is identified and where the client is unidentified. The same WhatsApp, which is located somewhere in California, will never understand this ... That is, the vulnerability of this algorithm has not yet been found, which means that it is also impossible to break the codes, "Lugovoi stressed.

In general, according to the parliamentarian, "it resembles such a war with Pokémon."