Russian authorities announce social media spying plans

The Russian Interior Ministry has announced plans to buy software that will allow it to spy on users of online social networks.

According to a report by The Moscow Times, the Zeus software will give the authorities access to private messages and allow them to collect location data, in addition to being able to analyse connections between users. The software is already in use in seven Russian regions, and has allowed the police to identify “latent” members of extremist groups that “allegedly carried out protests”, according to Russian internet newspaper Znak.

An Interior Ministry representative from Sverdlorsk, one of the regions already using the software, affirmed that “law-abiding citizens have no reason to worry about correspondence on social networks, as long as it doesn’t contain anything criminal,” adding that the software will only be used by court order.

In a statement to Znak, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev said that announcing the intention to buy such software was “quite normal”, and claimed that it was akin to “buying a car to patrol the area”. While he stated that monitoring would be carried out in “public places”, as many internet users make a certain proportion of their information public, he failed to comment on the software’s ability to read private messages.

This development forms part of the implementation of contentious new anti-terror legislation. Znak notes, however, that the Russian authorities have long been able to access personal information about social media users. The recently passed laws “simply legalised existing practices, and allowed for the usage of this data as evidence in court,” the internet newspaper reported.

Source: The Moscow Times