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LinkedIn May Be Blocked in Russia

Nan Palmero / Wikicommons

Communications regulator Roskomnadzor wants to limit access to the business networking site LinkedIn in Russia.

Russian daily "Izvestia" quotes Roskomnadzor official representative Vadim Ampelonsky: "We filed two requests to LinkedIn to give us information about localization of their subscribers servers in Russia, but they paid no attention to them. We filed a legal claim and won". 

An unnamed source also told the newspaper Kommersant that LinkedIn is believed to be in violation of Russia's personal data laws, which require companies to store clients' personal data on servers located in Russian territory. The source also said that LinkedIn is suspected of collecting and transmitting non-members' personal data without their consent. The source also said that LinkedIn is suspected of collecting and transmitting non-members' personal data without their consent. 

Moscow's Tagansky court has already approved Roskomnadzor's motion, but it has not yet gone into effect. Currently LinkedIn is fighting the measure in the higher instance.

Roskomnadzor cited stories in the media about repeated leaks of personal data as the reason for launching an investigation into LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the largest business networking and job search site. In 2015 the site exceeded 400 million registered users. Of those, 5 million were from Russia.


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