News of the week: corporate ad blocker in Chrome, FSB and Yandex encryption keys, communication is getting more expensive

In the new digest issue, read:

• HideMy.name VPN service was able to secure blocking in court;
• a full-fledged ad blocker in Chrome will be available only for corporate users;
• eSim data will be stored on the territory of the Russian Federation;
• Yandex did not provide the FSB with encryption keys;
• communication in Russia is getting more expensive due to the cancellation of roaming;
• MIPT team reaches the final of the Amazon contest;
• Apple removes unwanted videos from the network;
• Krasnodar provider refuses to install equipment for the "Spring Law".

VPN-service in court has achieved the cancellation of the block Roskomnadzor

At the beginning of the week, the VPN service HideMy.name, whose site Roskomnadzor blocks for about a year, was able to achieve the cancellation of the block in the Mari El court . Service was blocked in July last year by a decision of the Yoshkar-Ola District Court. The regional prosecutor became the author of the lawsuit about the block, and Roskomnadzor acted as the defendant.

On May 23, the service, together with the lawyers of Roskomsvoboda and the Center for Digital Rights, challenged the court decision. This time, the judge overturned the decision to block.

“Our precedent proves that today any website or business in Runet can be blocked on a far-fetched pretext for almost a year. At the same time, it will be possible to remove the lock only after several circles of bureaucratic hell, ”said the head of HideMy.name Markus Saar.

Only corporate users will be able to fully disable ads in Chrome

In January, Google decided to change its browser APIs, which are not compatible with most third-party ad blockers and a number of extensions. As it turned out, the innovation leads to the inability to use the webRequest API. This is usually done to block content on the fly, right at the time the page loads.

Google will block ads in its browser, but only for paid corporate users of Chrome . Corporate clients will be able to develop and install their extensions for this browser, which means that third-party extensions will work for them.

All other users will have to switch to a less efficient, rule-based declarativeNetRequest API. One of the developers of well-known ad blockers said that if the changes are accepted, then its extensions will no longer work normally. The developers of other anti-advertising extensions and plug-ins expressed a similar opinion.

Officials will oblige gadget manufacturers with eSim to store data on the territory of the Russian Federation

Companies that supply their devices with eSim support to Russia will be forced to host servers in the country . The servers will store subscriber profiles and cryptographic keys. According to representatives of the working group, which includes employees of the Ministry of Communications, the FSB and telecom operators, otherwise it will not be possible to guarantee the safety of subscribers' personal data.

True, testing of virtual cards has not yet revealed any security problems, which is what opponents of regulatory measures declare.

As for the eSIM technology itself, it gives the subscriber the opportunity to simultaneously use several profiles of telecom operators, the subscriber can switch between them independently. The transition from one operator to another can be performed at any time. Thus, there is no need to install a regular physical SIM card of a certain company. In the Russian Federation, devices such as Apple’s iPhone XR, XS and XS Max are compatible with eSIM, as well as, for example, Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Develop their own solutions for eSIM Gemalto, Idemia, Ericsson, GigSky, Samsung, Nokia HPE, Huawei, China Telecom and others.

Yandex has not issued the FSB encryption keys

Representatives of the FSB said that a few months ago they sent a request to Yandex to give encryption keys , which corresponds to the norms of the “Spring Law”. The FSB said that it usually takes about 10 days to issue keys, and Yandex, after several months, did not comply with the instructions of the intelligence agency.

The ministry believes that the FSB Center for Operational and Technical Activities has the right to require keys to any service or site that is included in the ARI registry. Yandex has several services in this registry at once. However, the company said the FSB interprets the provisions of the "Spring Law" too broadly. It turns out that when issuing encryption keys, law enforcement officers will be able to access not only the Yandex user account on the specific service from which the keys were received, but also on all other services of this company.

The representative of the Yandex press service told RBC that the company “works in full accordance with applicable law” and refused to answer questions about whether Yandex really received a request from the FSB to provide encryption keys and did not transfer them.

Communication began to rise in price in Russia

Due to the abolition of roaming in Russia, communication has become more expensive . Since December last year, the minimum package tariff has increased in price by 7 rubles, to 262 rubles per month. Rosstat, however, speaks of even greater growth. Market players claim that the cost of communication is growing due to the abolition of roaming. A few more reasons are the increase in VAT and the need to adapt the "Spring Law", which requires funds.

The average cost of the minimum package tariff for mobile communications in the Russian Federation from December 2018 to May 2019 increased by 3%, from 255 rubles to 262 rubles. The last time the price increase was recorded after analyzing the tariffs of operators from October 2016 to August 2017.

The increase is registered in all regions of Russia. Roaming in Russia was finally canceled on May 27, when Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree, which was the point on this issue. In the future, it is planned to cancel roaming between the EAEU member countries.

MIPT team reached the final of the Amazon contest

Amazon posted a shortlist for the Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge 3 at the end of this week . Of the 375 applications submitted, the Alexa Prize committee selected 10 finalists, including the PTI team. Each team will receive a research grant of $ 250,000. In addition, winners will have access to the Extended Topical Chat dataset and support from Alexa developers.

The competition is a competition for students, which is dedicated to the development of conversational artificial intelligence technologies. The main goal of the contest is to create a bot that can communicate with people on various topics, including entertainment, sports, politics, technology and fashion. The development of prototypes proposed by the teams will begin in September, the winner will be announced in May 2020.

The MIPT team is called DREAM and it includes post-graduate students of Fiztekh and iPavlov project staff from the Laboratory of Neural Systems and MIPT Deep Learning: Dilyara Baymurzina, Nikolai Bushkov, Idris Yusupov, Dmitry Karpov, Tae An Le and the team captain, Yuri Kuratov.

Apple is trying to delay the spread of the video with a negative reaction to the stand

Apple is trying to prevent the spread of the video with a negative reaction from viewers who heard the price of the Mac Pro stand, voiced by the speaker from the stage. The cost of the stand is $ 999, and after the price was announced, a puzzled hum of voices was heard in the hall. The reaction caused a slight hitch in the presentation and the speaker proceeded to the next slides.

A few hours after the presentation video hit the net, those copies of the reaction to what was happening began to disappear from YouTube. However, a full recording of the presentation was published on the company's website, so Apple is clearly not trying to remove absolutely all the videos.

A provider from Krasnodar refused to install equipment according to the "Spring Law"

A small provider from the city of Yeysk in the Krasnodar Territory refused to purchase and install equipment according to the "Spring Law" , which did not pass certification. Roskomnadzor sued the company. Representatives of the Ministry of Communications have already announced a gap in the legislation, promising to eliminate the “legislative gap”.

The company filed a lawsuit, arguing that it simply does not have certified equipment on the market. “We are offered to invest in storage systems, which may be later certified, but we fell into a similar situation with the implementation of the requirements for SORM-2 and SORM-3. We spent the money, and SORM-3 equipment is still not certified, ”explains the director of the company.