Why Apple’s Russian Data Must Stay In Russia

Big data might not have any borders, but the retailers who leverage it are dealing with the strict regulations.

That is the situation Apple’s Russian locations find themselves in, as the tech giant announced it will begin complying with a 2014 law requiring the data of Russian citizens to be stored on servers within the country’s borders, Russian-language newspaper Kommersat reported. The original law set a deadline of Sept. 1, 2015 for international companies to make the necessary changes.

Though Apple may be the latest company to comply with Russia’s tightening digital identity policies, The Moscow Times explained that it is far from the only one. Travel aggregator Booking.com already stores passport details and bank card information of Russian citizens who use the site.

Both Booking.com and Apple have partnered with Moscow-based IXcellerate, a data center firm with experience in helping foreign companies navigate Russia’s increasingly complex digital identity ecosystem.

While Apple may be one of the larger companies to demonstrate compliance with Russia’s new digital identity laws, there are several businesses that have reconsidered their activity in Russia because of the data hosting law. Digital music streaming service Spotify elected to cancel its plans for expansion into Russia when the law was passed, Apple Insider explained. With one of Apple’s major rivals in the music streaming market out of the competition in Russia, the resulting vacuum may have fed Apple’s decision to go forward with the partnership with IXcellerate despite the digital identity concerns of their customers.

[bctt tweet=”Spotify was forced to cancel plans for expansion into Russia when the restrictive law was passed.”]

For more on the digital identity ecosystem, click here to take a look at our Digital Identity Tracker, which helps identify the issues and trends that arise around the digital identity ecosystem.

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