On September 29, 2023, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) confirmed that amendments to the Federal Law on Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection will enter into force on October 1, 2023.  

Scope 

The amendments apply to owners of websites and mobile applications that use technology for providing information based on the collection, systematization, and analysis of information related to the preferences of internet users. The amendments do not apply to operators of state information systems, state bodies, and local governments. 

Requirements 

In particular, the Roskomnadzor noted that, according to the Law, website and mobile application owners, when using recommendation technology for providing information to users, must: 

• respect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, as well as the legislation of the Russian Federation;  
• put in place the rules, posted in Russian, that must describe the processes and methods for collecting, systematizing, and analyzing information related to the preferences of users, methods for implementing such processes, a list of information collected from users, as well as the sources of such information. Access to those rules should not be limited or conditioned by user registration or identification, nor the payment of fees; and 
• ensure that users are aware that the website or mobile application uses recommendation technologies. The Roskomnadzor recommends posting a message on the website or mobile application for that effect.  

Finally, the above requirements are not applicable if the website information systems and/or programs for computers provide information solely based on the results of search parameters specified by the user, including the use of filters configured by the user. 

You can read the press release, only available in Russian, here.