Recently Departed Founder Of Russia's Facebook Says Gov't Demanded Data On Ukrainian Protestors

from the surveillance-made-simple dept

While we're still puzzled by Ed Snowden's question to Vladimir Putin concerning Russian surveillance, it's pretty well accepted that the Russians have significant surveillance powers, and they're not afraid to use them. Now the outspoken ousted founder of "Russia's Facebook," VKontakte, Pavel Durov, has said that Russian intelligence service FSB had demanded info on Ukrainian protestors -- and that VKontakte had refused to provide it. As Mashable explains:

"On December 13, 2013 the FSB demanded from us to turn over the personal data of organizers of the Euromaidan protesters," Pavel Durov wrote in a post (English translation) on his VKontakte page on Wednesday.

"Our response has been and remains a categorical refusal — Russian jurisdiction does not extend to Ukrainian users VKontakte," he wrote. "Giving personal details Ukrainians Russian authorities would not only be against the law, but also a betrayal of all those millions of people in Ukraine who have trusted us."

This actually provides some more background details on what happened with VKontakte and Durov in the past few months. In January, Durov "sold" his stake in the site to the CEO of a Russian mobile operator. Many people noted at the time that this was unlikely to have been a wholly voluntary transaction. Having known some folks working for startups/tech companies in Russia, stories of being "forced" to sell are not exactly uncommon.

Durov himself had been outspoken for a while about the importance of secure communications, and had criticized both the NSA and the FSB for mass surveillance. He's also been working for a while on a secure messaging app (separate from VKontakte).

Then, just a few weeks ago, despite promises that when he sold his shares, nothing would change about his management role, he abruptly resigned. It was noted at the time that he had been under pressure to shut down pages related to Alexei Navalny, an opposition candidate to the current government, whose web presence was broadly censored by the Russian government last month. However, it was also hinted at that Durov had been asked to give up info on Ukrainian protestors. His latest comments appear to confirm those rumors.

Also, given that he's no longer there, and this appears to be part of the reason, it seems reasonable to believe that the FSB now does likely have access to such information via VKontakte. For whatever Putin thought he was proving with his answer to Snowden's question, it's pretty clear that Russian surveillance reaches far and wide. And, of course, the NSA's activities allow him to play it off as less intrusive than the NSA (even if that's not true). Either way, all of this seems to highlight why we all need much more secure communications systems.
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Filed Under: fsb, pavel durov, privacy, surveillance, ukraine, vladimir putin
Companies: vk, vkontakte


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  • icon
    ivanwolf (profile), 17 Apr 2014 @ 11:50am

    Just like you wrote about the NSA

    Of course, they are not Russian citizens, so they are not subject to the laws that demand a court order to surveil citizens. Just like everyone not a US citizen is not protected by the 4th Amendment. Sound familiar?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Gwiz (profile), 17 Apr 2014 @ 11:57am

    Recently Departed Founder Of Russia's Facebook Says....

    I get that this refers to Pavel Durov recently being ousted from the head position at VKontakte, but that headline reads like it's a dead person talking.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Lurker Keith, 17 Apr 2014 @ 4:06pm

      Re:

      I initially read the headline like that as well, & puzzled over how a Zombie could be making comments.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2014 @ 1:28pm

    They demanded when?

    And Zuckerberg would never whore himself out to any government, right?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2014 @ 2:12pm

    Don't get zuckered.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kronomex, 17 Apr 2014 @ 5:05pm

    F.S.B. is just the K.G.B. renamed.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mark1 (profile), 17 Apr 2014 @ 8:27pm

    They would be stupid not to

    Patton spent a lot of time reading Rommel's papers on tank warfare because he wanted to get insight into the man.
    Stormin Norman of Iraq fame found out as much as he could about Saddam Hussein. In a TV program he said he did this. Gen. Norman read an account that Saddam would not come out of a surrounded bunker until he was down to 2 or 3 bullets. That told the General that Saddam was not likely to give up.

    Any information on a persons temperment, political affiliations, resolve, level of intelligence is all useful.

    Not finding out as much as you can about your enemy is dereliction of duty.
    I would have asked for their social media information too.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Pragmatic, 22 Apr 2014 @ 5:16am

      Re: They would be stupid not to

      Yeah, but when they consider THE PUBLIC to be the enemy, Houston, we have a problem.

      Spying on the enemy? Fair enough. Spying on us? Get a warrant. Spying on our friends? Get a warrant.

      It's that simple.

      Now repeat after me: due process is not an impediment to justice.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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