On December 12, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ held an extended meeting of the committees at RIW 2022 - on legal issues, on the development of the domain space and on Internet Governance. Participants discussed current issues of the development of the Internet and the domain industry, talked about the problems of collecting and processing personal data, the impact of external factors on the Russian Internet, the results of IGF 2022 and Russia's participation in the preparation of the Global Digital Compact.
Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev noted that in Internet services, users often face excessive requirements for the disclosure of personal data. Because of this, companies often cannot ensure full protection of the personal data of their employees and customers, and, as Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev noted, 1-2% turnover fines can become an unbearable burden for them.
“I think the world is on the verge of a total transition from one formation to another. And everything we face today is a manifestation of the old way of life. In this context, personal data is evil, as it is now presented to users. But we are moving to total digital identification. In the digital environment, the basis is no longer a conditional “piece of paper”, but an entry in the database, a line in the digital register,” said Dmitry Marinichev.
Sergey Kopylov, Deputy Director of the Center, spoke about the new version of the Rules for registering names in .RU/.РФ domains that came into force and noted that the “identity substitution” of the administrator is now punishable, and the presumption of “good faith” of the subject who announced the use of his personal data without consent when registering a domain. “The main thing is that the processes of rulemaking and legislative regulation keep up with the development of technologies,” he said.
The topic was continued by one of the oldest Russian Internet experts, Mikhail Medrish, who emphasized that today it is technology that determines legal development. “You can't move forward while looking back. New technologies appear, but decisions are made in the same way as it was before. This is because the bulk of the conservative thinking operates. But we need to think about new things, about new ways of solving problems,” Mikhail Medrish said.
The meeting participants also discussed the areas of work of the legal committee in 2023. IP CLUB President Marina Rozhkova highlighted the problems of legal registration of blockchain domains, the issues of regulating gaming industry objects and introducing Universal Acceptance.
Members of the Domain Space Development Committee discussed the impact of external factors on the development of the Russian Internet in 2022 and shared their expectations for the next year. Irina Danelia, Deputy Director of Coordination Center, said that this year the domain industry was most affected by changes in logistics and financial flows, unavailability of foreign equipment and regulatory novelties.
Maria Kolesnikova, Chief Analyst of the Coordination Center, added that despite many difficulties, the trends in the implementation of Universal Acceptance are positive. There are domestic solutions that support domains and email addresses in Cyrillic, and many government agencies are already using these services, and next year interest and work in this direction will continue. “In general, this is not only an issue about domains and emails, it is an issue of using the national language on the Internet in general. And we want to give our users the opportunity to fully use the Russian language online,” she said.
Members of the Internet Governance Committee discussed the status and prospects for the preparation of the Global Digital Compact, which is being created at the initiative of the UN Secretary General. As Andrey Romanov, Deputy Director of the Center, noted, the entire year of 2023 will be under the auspices of the development of this document: now the collection of proposals for inclusion in the Global Digital Compact is open, and next year the main body of proposals will be formed, which will be discussed at the UN summit in 2024.
Director of the Center for Global IT-Cooperation Vadim Glushchenko said that 95 proposals have already been received from Russia, and most of them are related to connecting all people to the Internet and overcoming the digital divide. And Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center, added that the discussion of the Global Digital Compact will be one of the most important topics at RIGF 2023.
