Regional News Sites Rapidly Added to User Surveillance Registry
While monitoring the ORI registry, we discovered that since the beginning of July, eight more participants have been added, most of which are regional news portals.
Yakutian News Sites Join the Registry
At the start of the month, three Yakutian news sites owned by A.M. Pakhomov were included:
- life14.ru — “Yakutia News Day by Day. A site where users can comment on news.”
- sakhanauka.ru — “Sakha Science — An online publication about science and inventions. A site where users can comment on news.”
- sakha.estate — “Real Estate in Yakutia — News about the Yakutian real estate market. A site where users can comment on news.”
The first site has over 3,500 Instagram followers. To comment on news, users must register with their email. It also features a dating service, TapTal.Love, which requires registration via email or VKontakte.
The second site offers a classifieds board, where posting requires registration with both email and phone number. However, the connection to science is unclear.
The third site appears to function solely as a news platform and does not seem to collect user data.
Other Regional Media Added
Another new entry is Pacific Bulletin LLC, an information and analytics digest on the fishing industry at fishkamchatka.ru. News can be commented on anonymously or by registering through social networks.
The publication from Volsk, wolsk.ru, has over 5,000 followers on Odnoklassniki and nearly 10,000 on VKontakte. News can be commented on after registering via email or social networks.
The site go64.ru from Balakovo, Saratov region, requires registration and warns in its “Privacy Policy and Personal Data Processing Rules” that the portal owner, “IE Ivanova E.A.,” is the data operator and must provide user data to a range of government agencies, including the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, tax authorities, and the Pension Fund. This transfer is done “on legal grounds.” The site has nearly 12,000 VK followers, 18,400 on Instagram, and a total of 491,000 video views on YouTube.
Seti NN LLC from Nizhny Novgorod registered its news site setinn.tv in the ORI registry, which has 373,000 YouTube subscribers. To comment on posts, users must provide their email.
The Cheboksary information and entertainment portal PG21.RU has almost 335,000 VK followers, 10,000 each on Odnoklassniki and YouTube, 3,116 on Twitter, 158,000 on Instagram, and over 2,000 on Yandex.Zen. The site requires email registration and user consent for personal data processing.
Additional Sites Registered
Da-Media LLC registered two sites in the registry:
- guranka.ru — Women’s regional site “Guranka.ru”
- chitareklama.com — Advertising agency “Da-Media”
Registration on the first site is possible via a custom form or through social networks (Facebook, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte), allowing participation in a local forum. The site has 6,600 VK followers, over 1,000 on Facebook, 18,100 on Instagram, and more than 4,000 on Odnoklassniki. On the second site, users can post ads by filling out a special form.
Another site from Saratov, sarinform.ru, is operated by Sarinform LLC. This regional media outlet has 1,000 Facebook followers and 3,000 on VK.
What Does Inclusion in the ORI Registry Mean?
Being added to the ORI registry obligates site owners to collect, store, and provide the FSB with all information about user actions and interactions, as well as all user correspondence. Therefore, anyone registered on the above-mentioned portals, or who has otherwise provided their data there, should be aware of the potential risks involved.