Viber moved their servers in Russia – Business Portal

g of 19 on October 2015.

The administration of the second most popular in our country Viber messenger placed in Russia has its own server with the personal data of citizens of the Russian Federation. This “Izvestia” said the Moscow representative of the company Viber Media Elena Grachev.

– We have moved servers with personal data of Russians in Russia, as required by law, – says Grachev. – In Russia, will be stored phone numbers and user logins. Messages We do not store, they are on users’ devices.

Lawyers Viber Media believe that messengers come under a law requiring store personal data of Russians in Russia.

According to the updated version of the law “On personal data “, which entered into force on 1 September 2015 Internet companies need to store data on the territory of Russian citizens of our country.

In 2015, Roskomnadzor, according to representatives of the agency, will not check Facebook, Twitter, Google, Samsung, and other Internet services for compliance with this law. Inspections will begin in 2016.

It is known that their servers in Russia transferred eBay, PayPal, AliExpress. The press has also been reported that the servers in Russia carries Google, though, according to sources “Izvestia”, the information is untrue. Google really placed a Russian server, but for one of the local projects.

According to sources in the market in Google considering to abandon the Russian market.

– Google is to observe, how to perform the above-mentioned law, and only then make a decision – said the source.

At the same time the company began to move their offices from Russia development. The process started since the end of 2014. The first was disbanded Moscow office development. In August, 2015 – St. Petersburg. In Google’s reported “Izvestia”, that “it is common practice consolidation of engineering offices, which we carried out in many countries».

The representative of the company in Russia Open Garden (developing messenger FireChat) Anton Mercury, said the company It will not apply the servers in Russia, as “it is not necessary.” FireChat service creates a network of phone users – which goes through the sending of messages without the use of an Internet connection.

– the whole [for FireChat] servers – a phone [service users] – told Merkurov.

According to the Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinicheva, messengers are likely to obey the law ” On personal data “. According to him, in the case of violations of the law the owners of messengers will be fined if then everything will remain the same, service narushitali supposed to block.

– I think that in the current situation it is necessary only to observe the law – added Marinichev .

According to the director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications Sergei Plugotarenko taken by the Administration Viber decision is the result of active development of the Russian market and the prospects that messenger binds to Russia.

– As far as I can tell, blshaya of the messengers, involving registration of user accounts, contact them by email or mobile number, photography and geopozitsiey user, and especially – with his bank details we must make an effort to locate databases personal data of Russian Internet users in Russia, – says Plugotarenko. – However, as we all remember from the requirements of the law and clarification Telecommunications Ministry and Roskomnadzor, does not prohibit any cross-border transfer of personal data – if they are the primary data collection, processing and storage in Russia – not the work of distributed cloud systems and services.

According to TNS on mobile devices for July 2015, Viber used 7.1 million Russians. WhatsApp Messenger is more popular among mobile users (7.5 million), but the company is ignoring Russian laws. In the social network “VKontakte” (it has a built-in messaging) – 12 million, and its servers are already in Russia.

Vladimir Zykov