back to article Web-email king Mail.ru gulps $15k fine, fights govt demand to slurp data

Internet email maestro Mail.ru is fighting the Russian government's request for its customer data. The web portal, social network and email service, which employs an estimated 3,000 people and is roughly comparable with Yahoo! in Russian language markets, was fined $15,000 (500,000 rubles) for refusing to hand customer records …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Russians fight for privacy, maybe so they can attack and kill innocent migrants/gays and have to trial to follow?

    Weired!

    1. Anonymous Coward
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The Russians fight for privacy, maybe so they can attack and kill innocent migrants/gays and have to trial to follow?

      And what *exactly* have you been smoking?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amusing that Russia has better protection of consumer data than we do...

    1. T. F. M. Reader

      Russia simply does not yet have a sufficiently advanced legal system, that's all. More precisely, it has *just* got to the stage where a big and rich business feels confident enough to demand a court order before surrendering customer info to the government. It is not *yet* at the stage where such an order is easy to obtain without much (or any) supervision, can be served secretly, and the business will never be able to tell anyone about it.

      They will get there. They are fast learners and have a lot of relevant experience. In fact, they just might shortcut back to the 30ies to streamline the process...

  3. kryptonaut
    Coat

    500,000 rubbles

    Should have been a bit boulder.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 500,000 rubbles

      If only they had the stones ...

  4. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    I'd imagine that...

    One of the owners will be having a little "accident" anytime soon...

  5. Chris G

    Good for them!

    Russia is far from perfect but after 72 years of communism and seeing whole populations die or be moved thousands of miles for a political ideal or convenience; nobody wants the thin end of that particular wedge.

    ( I speak as the husband of a Russian who grew up in the Communist era.)

    1. Russell Clarke

      Re: Good for them!

      What particular thin ended wedge are you meaning? You seem just to want to make your own somewhat irrelevant statement of 'political ideal or convenience'. Historical fingers can be pointed anywhere... The USSR under Stalin was definitely no picnic but exchange that for being a serf in Czarist Russia? The USA in the 20's 'migrated' farmers into the Dakotas and whopee created the dust bowls and their immense poverty. Or how about the British and the 'Salt Wall' in India? Then as a final 'sc*ew you' to the Indian population at Independence the Brits partitioned India and mass migrated 'whole populations' to Pakistan and (now) Bangladesh. Look what that's done.

      Let's just be positive that mail.ru are helping Russia move in the right direction (unless this is a smart bluff from his Putin-ness??).

      And I feel for your wife. Surviving forced mass migration and seeing so many die is not something anyone should go through.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Russell Clarke Re: Good for them!

        "....The USSR under Stalin was definitely no picnic...." Ooh, I sense an apologist "but" coming....

        "....The USA in the 20's 'migrated' farmers into the Dakotas and whopee created the dust bowls and their immense poverty...." Que? The US government had been encouraging farmers to take up holdings in the Great Plains since the mid-1800s. They were fooled by a period of wet weather into thinking that the Plains could support European intensive agriculture, but a drought that kicked off in 1930 actually created the dust bowls. I think you'll also find the worst hit area was Oklahoma, not Dakota.

        "....Then as a final 'sc*ew you' to the Indian population at Independence the Brits partitioned India and mass migrated 'whole populations' to Pakistan and (now) Bangladesh...." Go read your history, the partition was completely the Indians fault, especially the Muslims that wanted their own "pure country". Ghandi was determined to avoid the splitting of the country but Jinnah was even more determined to force the issue. It's simply another example of how Islam does not play well with other cultures.

        Neither the Dust Bowls or the Indian Partition come even remotely close to the Red Terror that the Communists inflicted on their enemies and their own ranks, especially under Stalin. Indeed, his Great Purge included an average of about 1000 executions per day!

        1. Russell Clarke

          Re: Russell Clarke Good for them!

          Matt... My response was no apology. And actually _nineteen_ states in the heartland of the US became a vast dust bowl (check this with the US).

          You know, my reply to the original post was carefully reasoned - I am fairly knowledgeable about history and some of the events I mentioned are not so well known as perhaps they should be (politics of course which comes close to my point). I originally intended to treat your reply with the same respect, but then saw the bit about Islam and sighed... (though no silly FAIL icon).

          One of the supposed pleasures of democracy is the dialectic or debate, but not always.

          Anyway, you're right about the Great Purge but to return to my point - what has this to do with mail.ru and wedges?

          1. BlueGreen

            Re: Russell Clarke Good for them!

            @ Russell Clarke

            > my reply to the original post was carefully reasoned - I am fairly knowledgeable about history ...

            Don't bother mate. careful reasoning and knowledgeability is worth sweet FA to someone to whom reason and knowledge are simply chips in a game of ego that can - MUST! - have only one winner. Honestly, take it somewhere that homo mattbryantus does not dwell, where sentience lives, cos you're not going to find it in the slow-flowing cloaca of certain minds (apologies to noel harrison).

            1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
              FAIL

              Re: BlurtGrunt Re: Russell Clarke Good for them!

              <Yawn> What a surprise, you're still not over the intellectual thrashings you received in other threads I see. Still unable to post anything of relevance, you just post your usual bitter and sulky snarks. Far too much for you to post an intelligent comment on Russian repression, the Dust Bowl, Indian history, or comparisons with US rights, or maybe the discussion of the myths of The Workers' Paradise just upset you too much? Isn't it about time you just left the conversation to the adults?

              1. BlueGreen

                Re: BlurtGrunt Russell Clarke Good for them!

                > <Yawn> What a surprise, you're still not over the intellectual thrashings...

                Entire post of MZBCC. Congrats.

                1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                  FAIL

                  Re: LoserGreen Re: BlurtGrunt Russell Clarke Good for them!

                  Quit your whining and grow a pair. Better still, try making an actual intelligent post - I could do with a good laugh.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Good for them!

        " Then as a final 'sc*ew you' to the Indian population at Independence the Brits partitioned India "

        You do know that India didnt exist as a country before the arrival of the British? A variety of independant and/or autonomous nations all as every bit as bitey and back stabby as their European equivalents.

        1. Russell Clarke

          Re: Good for them!

          Dear A. Coward... Yes. What's that got to do with what the Britsdid in 1947?

          Did you know that around 500BCE the Achaemenid Persian Empire referred to the lower and middle Indus regions, respectively comprising Sindh and Sauvira, as the twentieth satrapy and called it, amongst other names, the Indian Satrapy?

          Did you know that before 1776 the USA didnt exist as a country before the war against the British? There were just a variety of independant and/or autonomous nations all as every bit as bitey and back stabby as their European equivalents...

          History eh? Great subject. "Doomed to repeat" and all that. I sometimes wish I'd been a history teacher rather than a(n) MoR IT techie!

          However the signal/noise ratio to the replies now seems to be getting a bit low and IMNSHO are wide of my original point so it's TTFN.

          Cheers all and good luck to mail.ru!

  6. Just_this_guy
    Joke

    Careful what you Putin your e-mail...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And?

    I have seen Russian stand up comediants taking the piss of Putin at a level compared to which Borat or Russel Brand seem to be toddler party entertainment. All of them AFAIK are still alive and kicking.

    There is control of public opinion, etc. It is also disproportionate to the actuall approval ratings. By the way, most of western politicians will run over any rule and moral constraint to get half of his public approval rating (IIRC it has been above 50% for the last 12+ years, going to 80% in some years).

    A lot of what is done for opinion control is also borrowed from Britain and other western democracies too - for example the NGO funding rule is literally the British political party funding rule (the one that got the liberal democrats into trouble a few years back). It is a two way street too. Western "democracies" fumed at the mouth 15 years ago when the first thing Putin did when coming to power was to mandate FSB network probes in every ISP. Who is fuming now may I ask?

    In any case, compared to the news we have been getting lately, this one sounds definitely refreshing.

  8. Eugene Crosser

    Because they where not the spooks

    In Russia, spooks basically get everything that they want without asking anybody, under the "СОРМ" (SORM) legislation. In this case, the company stood up to a request for data that came from somebody other then spooks, i.e. financial authorities. Nothing to see here, move along!

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