Roskomnadzor records around 40 major personal data leaks since beginning of year

MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has recorded about 40 major leaks of personal data, which remain accessible by special tools, since the beginning of this year, Roskomnadzor deputy head Milosh Vagner said.

"About 40 fairly large data leaks have been recorded this year. A great deal of data has leaked. Excellent datasets, all of them shared despite the fact that access to them is technically restricted. But, unfortunately, they can [still] be accessed by special tools," Vagner said at the First Russian Data Forum on Tuesday.

The leaked databases "can be used to learn about a person, where he or she lives, where they work and with whom. [The user] can learn details that we do not know about ourselves," he said.

On one hand, it will be necessary to tighten laws and data storage regulations, and on the other, Roskomnadzor proposes stricter self-regulation.

Roskomnadzor believes that access to big data should be given to those who can guarantee data security.

"Those who guarantee security and confidentiality and bear responsibility for confidentiality breaches should be given access to big data. I am not talking about administrative responsibility before the state, what I mean is responsibility stipulated by civil law, before the person whose data was shared," he said.

For now, "the battle for data" is unfortunately being lost by data owners, whose rights are insufficiently protected, Vagner said. He referred to the situations where a checkbox for giving consent to personal data processing exists on some websites by default, and the consent agreement is dozens of pages long. It is difficult to claim that there is user awareness in such cases, he said.

Another proposal from Roskomnadzor involves improving self-regulatory mechanisms in the industry, Vagner said. "An alternative to stricter requirements and laws is some kind of self-regulation via codes, guidelines and industry standards, with due account [being taken] of the specific features of a particular entity's operation," he said.