On November 11, 2016, a court in Moscow upheld the decision of a lower court to block Russians from accessing LinkedIn. The court decision originated from a decision of the Russian data protection regulator (Roskomnadzor), which had found that LinkedIn had failed to maintain Russian data on Russian servers in breach of the Russian Data Localization law. The decision affected over 5 million registered LinkedIn users. See here.
According to the Localization, Russian personal data must be initially collected and maintained in Russia. Here for more information.
This is the first time that the provision has been enforced since the Personal Data Localization Law came into force on September 1, 2015. Until now “Roskomnadzor [had] generally displayed a rather mild attitude towards international players, offering them extra time to comply with the law.” Adrien Henni, East-West Digital News, LinkedIn blocked in Russia: A welcome warning for global players?
Originally published on Technethics on November 2016