How legal are the proxies in the Russian Federation

Issues related to confidentiality have always been a priority for all kinds of Russian special services. It is no surprise that the issues about how legal is the use of anonymizers, have been repeatedly raised. The first debates on this subject began in 2012, and until now those who share the idea of using the respective servers, and their opponents, constantly intervene in disputes. First of all, people want to know whether it makes sense to forbid proxies, or at least to provide some restrictions on their use.

It would be nice to understand in more detail why the authorities of the country are so negative to such software. First of all, they see a problem in the ability of users to visit those resources that are officially banned in the territory of the Russian Federation. Although, there is even no need to talk across the country, since many websites block access for specific regions or providers. As an example, you can draw attention to the program “Golden Shield”. It has been developed and implemented in the life by Chinese authorities in 1998. The purpose of the launch of such a program is to barrier the Chinese from the World Wide Web.

Thanks to the functions of anonymous proxies, the user has the opportunity to visit social networks, access to which was closed by the employer. That is, the employee can actually perform various operations, even download videos, images, music, and all this will take place on a confidential basis. If we talk directly about the special services, such opportunities are unlikely to fall within the scope of their interests.

FSB, first of all, sees a threat in the fact that anonymous proxies can be viewed by violators as a tool for illegal activities. For example, using anonymizers, the violators can engage in activities related to the sale of drugs, weapons, to support organizations banned in Russia, to download videos of a pornographic nature involving minors, and so on. On the basis of these reasons, many offer once again to develop and adopt a law that would forbid the possibility proxy servers operation in the country’s territory. However, experts in such matters are well aware that it is not logical to deal exactly with proxies, since any such processes are necessarily carried out through the TOR, and this is completely different software.

Several years ago the State Duma deputies have not been able to vote for a draft law that would have banned the use of proxies in the Russian Federation. But in early 2015 this issue was raised again. According to the latest information, Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications aims to block access to a number of popular resources. As stated by experts on network security issues, hundreds of thousands of citizens use anonymizers to purchase illegal items and upload forbidden videos.

Some people deputy’s stand for complete ban of encrypted connection in any form. At the same time, they probably do not realize to what consequences would entail such a decision. In the case of such bans, the attackers would have literally unrestricted access to any information. Great opportunities would be opened in front of hackers – up to reading of data from bank cards and electronic payment systems.

Whatever law enforcement officers, representatives of FSB and deputies would think, but there is no adopted law that would forbid proxy servers at the present time. Thus, anonymizers can be freely used and there is nothing to worry about.