State Duma toughens penalties for personal data leakage

On November 26, deputies of the State Duma (GD) adopted an amendment to toughen administrative penalties for personal data leakage.

It is specified that in comparison with the first reading, the sanctions were specified partially - in the direction of mitigation, partially - in the direction of increasing responsibility.

In addition, the amendment on punishment - up to five years of imprisonment - for illegal use of personal data of minors was adopted.

According to the law, for the illegal distribution of 1 thousand to 10 thousand personal data subjects or 10 thousand to 100 thousand identifiers, it is proposed to introduce fines of Br100 thousand to Br200 thousand for civilians, Br200 thousand to Br400 thousand for officials, and Br3 million to Br5 million for legal entities.

For mass leakage, the law provides for a fine of Br200 thousand to Br300 thousand for citizens, Br300 thousand to Br500 thousand for officials and Br5 million to Br10 million for legal entities.

Earlier, on August 28, Senator Artem Sheikin reported that the Council for the development of the digital economy at the Federation Council recommended the Ministry of Digital Economy to develop a mechanism of out-of-court compensation to citizens for leaks of their personal data. He explained that the changes would prevent companies from unnecessarily collecting Russians' personal data and encourage data operators to take the information they process more seriously.

Vladimir Arlazarov, CEO of Smart Engines, Doctor of Technical Sciences, called this mechanism a positive initiative in a conversation with Izvestia on August 30.