Report: Russia’s FSB could gain access to Israelis’ data through Yango service

Russian opposition outlet Meduza claims that through new legislation, Russia’s FSB security service will soon gain access to the entire database of users of tech company Yandex, enabling it to gather data on its users around the world, including in Israel.

Beyond serving as a search engine, Yandex provides various international services. In Israel it is behind the Yango taxi-hailing app, the Yango Deli grocery shopping app and the Wind scooter-sharing app.

Meduza says the FSB will, starting on September 1, have “round-the-clock” access to the data of Yandex users.

Reuters reports that regulators in Norway and Finland, where Yandex also offers taxi services, are banning Yandex from providing any data on local users to Russia.

“There is an acute risk to privacy as Russian authorities could potentially monitor the movements of Norwegian citizens via Yango,” Norway’s Data Protection Authority says.

Yango Israel tells Channel 12 the company is an Israel-based subsidiary and “Russian regulation has no effect nor an ability to affect” it.

“No client data is provided to Russia today, nor will it be in the future. Personal data of Yango customers is stored under the strictest privacy standards” and cannot be transferred to local or international authorities without court orders, it says.