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LinkedIn faces ban in Russia

27.10.2016

A Russian district court has upheld a claim by the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (“Roskomnadzor”) seeking restriction of access to the world's largest professional network, LinkedIn, on Russian territory. The judgment was delivered on 4 August 2016 (accessible here in Russian only). The information on the case, however, was disclosed to the media only on 25 October 2016.

The court found LinkedIn to be liable of a violation of Federal Law dated 27 July 2006 No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data” (the “Personal Data Law”), in particular of its provisions concerning the treatment of Russian citizens’ personal data. Under the Personal Data Law (para. 5 Art. 18), Russian citizens’ personal data must be stored and processed on servers located in Russia. The court found that LinkedIn does not operate a server in Russia. Furthermore, in the court’s view, LinkedIn processed the personal data of third parties who were not covered by a user agreement. On this basis, the court declared LinkedIn to be in violation of the Personal Data Law and ordered Roskomnadzor to take steps to restrict access to LinkedIn.

The judgment is not yet in force. An appeal is now being lodged with the Moscow City Court.

LinkedIn is the world's largest business and employment oriented social network service. In 2016 the network had more than 430 million registered users with more than 5 million people from Russia.

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