The Moscow local government is currently collecting the personal information of its employees as a way to address the pandemic, said Human Rights Watch. Authorities do not require agreement on the part of the data owner, making the move non-consensual.
This decision came after Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin observed a surge in the number of pandemic cases in the city in Autumn. This is the country’s second wave of infection, with 13,000 new infections daily, said Meduza.
At the beginning of October, Sobyanin urged all companies to reduce their onsite operations by 30%, allowing the said portion of the staff to work from home. This entails that remote employees should report to the city every week.
Information that should include phone numbers, metro pass numbers, and vehicle registration. Employees who fail to file such weekly reports will be subject to a RUB 200,000 (USD 2,600) fine.
Meanwhile, independent contractors will be fined RUB 50,000 (USD 650) and LLCs will be fined RUB 300,000 (USD 3,900). Repeat offenders can face a RUB 1 million ($13,000) fine. They can also be ordered to cease operations for 90 days.
The subject of such laws expressed criticisms against the new regulation, including legal professionals, activists, and employers as it “[infringes] on the right to privacy,” as per the HRM report.
To quell the public disapproval, Moscow IT Department deputy head Dmitry Ivanov said that the data will be used only for the pandemic preventive measures, specifically with regards to the spread of the virus.
HRW also highlighted that “mobile location information, which authorities will most likely gather for such analysis, can contain sensitive and revealing insights about a person’s identity, location, and associations, which the government can use to crack down on populations.”
In an attempt to overturn this new rule, three major IT associations in Russian jointly wrote to the Ministry of Information saying that data in question should be considered personal as per Russia’s labor law.
The law states that employers cannot hand over the data to a third party without the worker’s consent. The Ministry clarified that the “a special regime of movement” was given to the mayor in accordance with the President’s directive pertaining to the pandemic.
However, it is important to note that the directive only allows authorities to limit pedestrian and transportation movements but does not include safety measures on data processing.
