The State Duma reported on the collection of personal data of Russians by foreign platforms

Foreign services secretly collect personal data from users using trackers in mobile applications, cookies, tracking pixels, as well as hidden requests to servers that transmit information about the user’s actions, location, device, and preferences, Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and federal coordinator of the Digital Russia party project, told RIA Novosti.

According to him, personal data is one of the key assets of digital platforms, and many foreign services collect it without the user noticing. Trackers integrated into mobile applications, cookies, tracking pixels, and hidden requests to servers that transmit information about actions, geolocation, device, and preferences are used. This allows for the formation of detailed digital profiles without the explicit consent of a person, he said.

According to the parliamentarian, metadata is collected especially intensively — information not about the content, but about the context: when, where and how the user interacts with the service. For example, even simply opening an application can transmit data about your IP address, geolocation, device model, battery level and set language. This information is used not only for marketing, but also for building behavioral models. Often, the user formally agrees to the transfer of data without studying the user agreement or privacy policy. At the same time, many foreign services deliberately make these documents complex, voluminous and confusing in order to hide the real scale of collection. In some cases, data can be transferred to third parties or used to train algorithms without the user's knowledge, Nemkin explained.

The deputy warned: the risk is that the collected information may end up in other jurisdictions where there is virtually no control from the user or the state. This is especially relevant for services controlled by companies from unfriendly countries. As a result, data leaks and unauthorized commercial analytics are possible. Users should pay attention to the permissions requested by the application: if, for example, a note-taking program requires access to the microphone, geolocation, and contacts, this is an alarming signal. It is also important to use tracker blocking tools and choose services that openly declare compliance with national data protection legislation, he emphasized.

Nemkin recalled that in recent years, several large foreign services have found themselves at the center of scandals due to hidden or aggressive collection of user data. One of the most high-profile cases was TikTok. The application was accused of collecting a vast array of user information, including metadata, geolocation, clipboard data, and even biometric parameters.

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