Russia added Apple and Microsoft to its state surveillance registry

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Companies on the list must store user communications and hand them to security services if asked; Google joined in January

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Russia put Apple $AAPL and Microsoft $MSFT on a state registry obliging firms to keep user messages and hand them to the security services whenever asked, according to Bloomberg.

Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, placed the two U.S. technology companies on its list of "organizers of information dissemination" on Oct. 2, according to Bloomberg, which cited a database the regulator maintains.

Companies listed in the registry must retain the written, audio and video messages of users in Russia and hand the data to security services on demand, according to Bloomberg. They must also retain records on their users and on how those users' messages were sent, and keep them inside Russia for three years, according to Bloomberg. Companies that ignore the rules risk penalties and, eventually, limits on how people in Russia can reach their services, according to Bloomberg.

Google $GOOGL and its Google Meet video-calling service joined the same registry in January, according to Bloomberg.

Roskomnadzor can enter companies on the registry when national security or law enforcement agencies at the federal level ask it to, according to Bloomberg. The regulator has also been able, since 2024, to list companies against their will once a court finds that they repeatedly neglected their notification obligations. Several hundred companies are on the list, according to Bloomberg.

Under the broader Russian legal framework that the registry belongs to, authorities can obtain communications data that online platforms and messaging services hold, according to Bloomberg.

Russia has clamped down harder on its home internet and on overseas tech platforms since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion in 2022, according to Bloomberg. Authorities have cut off or limited access to social networks, messaging apps and independent news sources.

In many cases, access to Snap $SNAP’s Snapchat, Apple’s FaceTime, Discord, Viber, WhatsApp and Signal requires a VPN, according to Bloomberg. The government in Moscow has sought to curtail VPNs as well.

Telegram was drawn into the government’s clampdown this year, according to Bloomberg. Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, accused Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire whose company developed the messaging service, of abetting terrorism in July and put him on a global list of wanted fugitives, according to Bloomberg.

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