> Then in 2016 a counter terrorism law was passed and it sounds like they ISPs/telecoms are required to store everything for 6 months and it merely has to be re

> Then in 2016 a counter terrorism law was passed and it sounds like they ISPs/telecoms are required to store everything for 6 months and it merely has to be requested by “authorities” (guessing beyond just the FSB) without a court order Russia is not alone. The EU required the same thing from 2006, until the EU Court struck it down in 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_retention#European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_retention#European_Union is a fun read in how the EU fined countries for adhering to their respective national constitutions and refusing to implement that directive. Looking beyond the EU, there are plenty of allegedly democratic countries on that wiki page with legally-required data retention: In 2015, the Australian government introduced mandatory data retention laws that allows data to be retained up to two years. [..] It requires telecommunication providers and ISPs to retain telephony, Internet and email metadata for two years, accessible without a warrant