Russia Wants Access to Tinder Photos and Conversations

Russian intelligence wants to take a closer look at your Tinder photos and conversations. After Tinder and 175 other companies agreed to comply with Russian legislation asking companies to store data on Russian servers for six months, the Russian government now wants Tinder to release the information it collects from Russian account holders, writes the BBC.

Although Tinder “registered to be compliant” with new Russian regulations, the company insisted that “this registration in no way shares any user or personal data with any Russian regulatory bodies and we have not handed over any data to their government.”

This request is part of Russia”s strategy to tighten control, including other draconian laws such as fining users who insult authorities online. Companies that refuse to give in to government demands are either fined or blocked from the country. Twitter, for example, was fined $46 for not disclosing to Russian authorities where data on Russian users was kept, according to Foreign Policy. LinkedIn was blocked in 2016 for not complying with the data storage law.

Roskomnadzor, Russia”s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, also plans to block nine VPN providers if they refuse to give in to Russian legislation, writes Tech Radar. According to a Russian news source, the institution is committed to training Russian journalists to make sure their articles are in line with Russian legislation regarding content about authorities, drugs and suicide. Accused of censorship, Russia claims its legal measures actually aim to hamper attacks.