From Russia With News

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th December, 2022) In this digest, we will tell you about the Russian authorities' plans to tighten penalties for personal data leaks, a project to protect the rights of tourists during the holidays, and which fairy tale best embodies the New Year holiday spirit for Russians.

HIGHER FINES FOR PERSONAL DATA LEAKS

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development has finalized a bill on turnover fines for companies leaking personal data which provides for the introduction of fines from 5 million rubles ($71,567) to 500 million rubles starting September 2023, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing a source.

The penalty will be based on the company's revenue for the Calendar year preceding the year in which the leak was detected, the newspaper said.

A 500-million-ruble fine is envisioned for those companies that have repeatedly leaked data or tried to hide the incident since the bill's adoption.

As of now, the maximum fine a company faces for data leakage is 500,000 rubles.

The Kaspersky Threat Intelligence service said in early December that over 1.5 billion records of Russians' personal data fell into open access in 2022.

The Russian Peace Foundation announced on Monday that it had launched a hotline to protect the rights of tourists during the New Year holidays.

"A hotline to protect the rights of tourists has been launched in Russia to process all complaints from citizens during the 2022 New Year holiday," the NGO said in a statement.

Russians can both call and send an e-mail for any emergency situations, the statement added.

"The information will be promptly processed and transmitted to the relevant organizations and authorities," the organization said.

Russians consider "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" fairy tale by Ernst Hoffmann to be the book that best conveys the New Year holiday spirit, a survey by Russian e-book service LitRes, which interviewed 500 users from across the country, revealed on Monday.

"Ahead of December 31, the LitRes group of companies and the Rostelecom Books service conducted a survey among users to find out whether they believe in New Year miracles, whether they will make a wish under the chiming clock, which book and film version they consider the most festive. Users consider Ernst Hoffmann's fairy tale 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' to be the most 'New Year'sy' book," the study said..

As many as 18.5% of users voted for the Hoffmann story. It was followed by "The Twelve Months" by Samuil Marshak (16.6%) and "The Night Before Christmas" by Nikolai Gogol (11.7%).

The top five also include the Harry Potter sagas by J. K. Rowling (9.4%) and "Winter in Prostokvashino" by Eduard Uspensky (8.6%).

When asked which film versions of famous books capture the New Year spirit the best, 16.1% of Russians opted for the Harry Potter movies. This was followed by the 1964 film adaptation of the fairy tale "Morozko" (14.5%) and the cult Soviet musical comedy "Magicians" (13.2%), largely inspired by the Strugatsky brothers' story, "Monday begins on Saturday." "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" � a film version of the eponymous collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol � closes the top five with 7.8%.