Apple and Microsoft have been added to a Russian state surveillance registry, requiring them to hand over users' text, video and audio messages without a legal process. Multiple firms and apps are already on this same list, including WhatsApp and Telegram. Moscow added Apple and Microsoft to this registry of "organizers of information dissemination" on October 2, 2026. The registry is operated by the country's state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor. Now that Apple is on this registry, Russian law requires it to store local users' correspondence for up to three years. That data must be stored on servers within Russia, and it must be turned over to the country's security services as required. Neither Apple nor Microsoft has yet commented publicly on the new requirements. This move follows Russia's blocking of FaceTime in 2025 and its history of fining Apple for not storing iCloud data on local servers.
Apple opened an office in Moscow in February 2022, but has never had Apple Stores in the country. It stopped online sales in 2022 at the start of the attacks on Ukraine. Apple devices have been sold through third-party resellers for decades, and its services remained available to Russian subscribers until early 2026. That was at least in part because services such as the App Store are a grey area legally. Russian authorities have long demanded that major technology companies establish offices in the country and store data locally.
Source: AppleInsider · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing