If the FSB (Russia’s security service) gets access to the personal data from our social media accounts, do you really doubt that the first thing they’ll do is check who the Novaya Gazeta journalists were corresponding with while working on their investigation into the FSB leadership’s dacha dealings?
If Chaika and Co. get access to messaging apps (as was proposed today), then of course the prosecutor’s office, “in light of the geopolitical situation,” will start looking into what the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) staff were discussing while working on the “Chaika” investigation.
Everyone understands this, and that is exactly why Volkov’s petition on Change.org has already gathered 15,000 signatures.
Take note: it is addressed not to Russia, but to places where public petitions are actually heard. The official addressees are: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Management of internet companies. The idea is very simple: if they jointly refuse to transfer personal data to Chaika, Bastrykin, Roskomnadzor (Russia’s media and communications regulator), and all those crooks like the internet ombudsman, then there will simply be nothing anyone can do to them. The law will become useless. Detailed explanations are here.
I think this is the right thing to do, and I signed it. You should sign it too. Yes, we know that even in the West there are no guarantees that our data stored by internet giants will remain inviolable. Still, as of today, one thing can be said with certainty: our data is safer with Zuckerberg than with Rotenberg.