A Moscow court on Tuesday fined Google for failing to store personal data on its Russian users, the latest in a series of fines on the U.S. tech giant amid tensions between the Kremlin and the West over the fighting in Ukraine.
A magistrate at Moscow’s Tagansky district court fined Google 15 million rubles (about $164,200) after the company repeatedly refused to store personal data on Russian citizens inside the country. Google was previously fined over the same charges in August 2021 and June 2022.
Google also was ordered to pay a 3 million ruble (about $32,800) fine in August for failing to delete allegedly false information about the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia can do little to collect the fine, however, as Google’s Russia business was effectively shut down last year after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. The company has said it filed for bankruptcy in Russia after its bank account was seized by the authorities, leaving it unable to pay staff and suppliers.
I think there’s some irony in Google getting fined for not storing ENOUGH user data lmao
At least some form of in Soviet Russia joke.
Uh… Google collects user data, but in Soviet Russia user data collects Google!
Nice
It’s a stretch, but it still plays. Nice.
The article says storing the data in Russia, or it could just be articles vagueness. They probably store plenty of data, just not storing it in Russia. But who knows. This is such a nothing burger story.
They are getting fined for not storing it in Russia. They are storing it outside if Russia. So they aren’t “not storing it”… They just aren’t storing it where Russia can get at it easily.