Anton Nemkin: “The procedure for consent to the processing of personal data may be changed”

CrimeaPRESS reports:

A bill on a new procedure for processing personal data may be prepared in 2024.

The upper house of Parliament is discussing the issue of changing the procedure for processing personal data. We are talking about the separation of the user agreement and consent to data processing. The initiative was put forward by senators of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building within the framework of the meeting “Digital Personal Identity: Issues of Legal Regulation.”

Now a citizen, having visited the site once, is notified by its owner that he accepts the terms of the user agreement, which automatically includes consent to the processing of personal data,” noted Lyudmila Kurovskaya, director of the Center for Legal Assistance to Citizens in the Digital Environment.

The expert believes that it is necessary to consider the user agreement as “an agreement between the subjects of personal data and the operator to determine the rights and obligations associated with the use of information resources.

That is, it does not include consent to the processing of personal data.

In addition, it is proposed to establish at the regulatory level a provision according to which the processing of personal data must always correspond to the subject of the contract, otherwise the collection of data should be considered illegal. Also during the meeting, experts noted that any information regarding data processing must be presented in clear and understandable language, including the possibility of being read in the language of a national minority.

The purpose of this initiative is to eliminate the possibility of collecting personal data under the pretext of a user agreement, explained Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications.

At the moment, users are rather in an unfair position. By clicking on the button to agree to the user agreement, they may not even suspect that such an agreement contains a clause about the provision of personal data. Not all users are willing to spend time studying contracts; this is a normal situation. In addition, in such agreements, companies may include provisions for collecting too heterogeneous data, including user activity on other resources. In fact, there are currently no clear regulations on when user data can be collected and when not. In addition, the principle of consent by default has been developed in Russia. That is, a format in which a “tick” has already been checked for the user, which increases the percentage of consent, not even all users notice this “tick”. It is necessary to introduce an option for active consent, which involves putting a mark by the user himself and therefore increases the likelihood of familiarizing himself with this or that information.

The current state of affairs limits the user in exercising their rights, the expert believes.

The user has virtually no knowledge of what the company collects and why. Of course, here we can say that this is the responsibility of the user: did not read, did not recognize. Today there is a clear legal bias towards companies, but we need a balance. In conditions when citizens of the country are faced with daily calls from scammers, the issue of the safety of personal data should be especially relevant. There are many stories when, it would seem, a citizen just left his phone number, first and last name on the resource, and the company also collected his location data. At the same time, most companies are lax about the safety of personal data and are subject to leaks — fortunately, this issue is now being actively studied in the State Duma,” noted Anton Nemkin.

The adoption of the amendments is a positive trend that will protect citizens from unlawful collection of data and ensure their safety, the deputy concluded.

source: press service of State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin

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