Major Russian tech firms advocate for changes in data legislation, arguing current restrictions on anonymised information hinder artificial intelligence innovation amid rapid regulatory shifts.
Russia’s big data industry is urging the digital development ministry to loosen rules on anonymised information, arguing that current law is slowing artificial intelligence development. The Association of Big Data, which includes Avito, Sber, Rostelecom, Yandex, VK and other major players, has asked the ministry to amend personal data legislation so that privacy-enhancing technologies can be used without citizens’ consent for AI development, training and deployment. Industry participants say the problem is that anonymised information is still treated as personal data in legal terms, even when a person cannot be identified.
According to Kommersant, the association says properly applied privacy-enhancing technologies make re-identification impossible or close to impossible, yet Russian law does not treat them as a separate category. The proposal would allow such tools only if the risk of identifying a person is zero or minimal, the data are used strictly for AI tasks and the processing takes place in Russia by Russian companies. The group also wants a new concept of a “trusted intermediary”, a state-accredited body that would hold anonymised datasets and grant access to them for AI work, alongside a system distinguishing paid data for commercial use from free data collected to meet legal requirements.
Executives in the sector say internal data sources are no longer enough. Svetlana Zakharova, business development director at Just AI, told Kommersant that companies have already relied on internal records, subsidiaries and partner projects, but those pools are now insufficient. A representative of MWS AI, part of MTS Web Services, said broader access to data would speed the creation of applied AI products. Vladimir Arlazarov, chief executive of Smart Engines, told the newspaper that the most useful inputs for model training are not identifying details but anonymised behavioural and medical datasets, although synthetic data already covers part of the demand.
The request fits a wider policy debate that has been building for several years. In April 2023, Maksut Shadayev, head of the Ministry of Digital Development, said anonymised data should be more widely available for businesses and AI systems, while also stressing the need for security and tighter data handling. Later proposals discussed standardising anonymisation methods, defining how datasets for machine learning should be formed and limiting access where there could be harm to citizens or foreign influence. In July 2026, Russia also adopted its first law on AI development, creating a framework for large models and AI content labelling and allowing training on state data and works without separate licensing, underlining how quickly the regulatory environment is shifting.
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