Last December, the Parliament of Russia adopted the Federal Law No. 519 FZ amending the Federal Law on Personal Data (the “Law”).

What is the key change?

The key change is the introduction of the concept of public domain data (“Public Domain Data” or “PDD”) and the dissemination and the processing of such Public Domain Data provided that the data subject has consented to such dissemination and processing. This change is effective as of 1^st March 2021.

The PPD is defined as personal data to which the data subject has given access to an unlimited number of persons subject to the relevant data subject’s consent as set forth in the Law.

What does it mean?

The guidance we have gathered to date suggests that:

• This new Law does not apply to background services including to the reputational media check because the ultimate aim of First Advantage and their customers is not to disseminate the PDD (e.g. data collected for reputational media checks) in the public domain.

  The first companies targeted by this new Law are certainly the social media platforms as well as any companies collecting and disseminating personal information on scale. These companies operating in Russia will from now on need to collect a proper consent of the individuals as prescribed by the Law.

• The companies without a presence in Russia (i.e. no  corporate presence, no Russian language website, etc. as per current enforcement practices of the Russian Data Protection Authorities ) are not impacted by this new Law.
• While the companies governed by Russian law may not be subject to the requirements of this new Law, the general provisions regarding consent remain valid, i.e. the data subject’s written consent shall be informed, detailed and knowingly granted and cover the processing of the potential PDD disclosed by the data subject and the sub-processing of such PDD.

First Advantage recommends that you discuss next steps with your legal team and/or your data privacy team or officer.

Information Content Notice:

The foregoing information is not offered as legal advice but is instead offered for informational purposes. First Advantage is not a law firm and does not offer legal advice. The foregoing information is therefore not intended as a substitute for the legal advice of an attorney knowledgeable of the user’s individual circumstances. First Advantage makes no assurances regarding the accuracy, completeness, currency or utility of the following information. Legislative, regulatory and case law developments regularly impact on general research.