The social network "Vkontakte" told about how and why it provides user data

The other day, the social network "Vkontakte" published information about what data the user provides the organization to third parties. This is primarily about requests from officials and law enforcement officers - in accordance with the laws “On the Police”, “On the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation”, “On the operational-search activity” and others.

According to the Vkontakte administration, government organizations and courts have the authority to contact technology companies for information about the users of their services. At the same time, the social network itself believes that the provision of data on demand is the fulfillment of the duty to find real criminals, which at the same time allows us to protect users' rights to confidentiality.

According to the laws of Russia, a number of organizations, including courts and law enforcement agencies, have the right to request certain information about Russian users at various stages. This may be operational investigative activities, pre-investigation check, preliminary investigation or already a trial. At the same time, private messages can not be issued to any of the state bodies without a relevant court decision.

For organizations, the authority to request data has the right to:

• Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor).
• Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
• Courts.
• Law enforcement agencies, including the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the Federal Customs Service, the prosecutor's office and others.

Vkontakte considers requests that are provided in writing and comply with the law. Lawyers of the company check whether there are grounds for requesting information, and if they are available, the data are provided. In the course of considering the possibility of issuing data, Vkontakte checks whether they will actually be received by an official body or an authorized person.

As for the inquiry procedure, it should be drawn up in a specific form and have attributes such as the signature of an official and the seal of the authorized body. In addition, the request should include a list of data about the user, as well as the reasons for the requirement to issue information.

Data may be provided without a court order. In this case, the social network can provide the address of the user's personal page, the time and IP address of the profile registration, the mobile phone number, the email address, the time and the IP address of the last password change, the history of changing the user name and the attached mobile phone number, time and IP -address of placement of the content specified in the request, history of page blocking and support calls, history and list of IP addresses to access the page.

At the same time, it is impossible to notify users about requests received at their address, this is hampered by the provisions of art. 12 of the Federal Law 144-FZ “On operational investigative activities”, paragraph 15 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 759 of July 31, 2014 and art. 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code. In fact, the fact of receiving the request is confidential information.

According to “Vkontakte”, this is quite logical, because if we are talking about the investigation of crimes - for example, murder, the notification of the receipt of the request can significantly complicate the investigation of the crime or the detention of the attacker.

The administration of the social network also reports that if the data is not provided at the request of law enforcement agencies, then responsibility may arise for the company, including criminal liability.

Earlier, the representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia, Alexander Kurennoy, stated that there were not a single criminal case initiated in the country’s social networks. “All these cases were baptized“ about likes and reposts ”. Here we must separate: there are no criminal cases for likes, there are reposts, because reposts are the placement of information, ”he said.

On October 3, the news was published on Habré that Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted to the State Duma a bill on partial decriminalization of article 282 on extremism - criminal punishment of articles and reposts on the Internet and the media (“actions aimed at inciting hatred or hostility, and on the humiliation of the dignity of a person or a group of persons ").