Russian President Vladimir Putin has given his assent to the legislation consisting of a package of controversial anti-terror amendments. The legislation is dubbed as Big Brother law was adopted by the lower and upper houses of Russian parliament in June 2016. The nick-name Big Brother law was coined by Edward Snowden, US intelligence contractor turned privacy activist. He has condemned the law despite being given asylum in Russia.
Key provisions of law Boosts the surveillance powers for the security services and grants them access to any user’s messages without any judicial oversight. Mandatory for communication (network) service providers to store users’ calls, messages, photographs and videos for six months and the metadata for up to three years. Federal Security Service (FSB) should be provided with the stored data. Companies and service providers must provide it necessary encryption mechanisms to access files. Tougher sentences for extremism and criminalises several offences. For certain crimes the age of criminal responsibility reduced to 14.