The Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation has put forth a bill to oblige taxi services and companies to share data with the Federal Security Service (FSB), reports RBC. The data in question is information “used in the course of receiving, storing, processing, and transferring passenger taxi orders”, including the taxi location and the driver's details.
The bill “On organizing the transportation of passengers and luggage by taxi in the Russian Federation and amending individual legislative acts of the Russian Federation” suggests that app-based passenger taxi services provide the security agency with “automated remote access” to their IT systems.
The bill does not specify the nature of data the FSB would get access to. Taxi services’ data would also be submitted to the Regional System of Navigation and Information – a platform for managing and monitoring transport infrastructure in Russia’s regions.
According to RBC's source, the bill has been approved by the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Service for Supervision of Transport, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Tax Service, and the Ministry of Health. Irina Zaripova, the Citymobil taxi and carsharing service spokesperson and chair of the Community Board for Regional Taxi Service Development, confirms the bill is authentic.