Kaspersky revealed the results of a voluntary third-party legal assessment of Russian legislative acts and how they apply to Kaspersky. The assessment was conducted by Dr. Kaj Hober, professor of International Investment and Trade Law at Uppsala University in Sweden and an expert on the Russian legal system. The key findings were the following:
- Kaspersky may be asked by the Federal Security Service (FSB) to cooperate with it, but the company is not obliged to do so.
- Laws that oblige vendors to assist the FSB with operational-investigative activities apply only to companies that provide electronic communication services, which Kaspersky does not.
- Laws that force companies to store data in Russia and provide it and encryption keys (for decryption) to the FSB apply only to telecom providers, and Kaspersky is not a telecom company.