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American secret services spy on users without their consent for decades, says Russian MFA

The diplomats pointed out that no state "has the authority to abuse its technological capabilities in such a sensitive sphere as access to the personal data of smartphone users"

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russia’s competent agencies have uncovered another case of the US spying on its own citizens as well as those from other countries; Washington has been spying on Internet users without their consent for decades, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"Competent authorities in Russia have established yet another instance of the systematic global surveillance conducted by American intelligence services against its citizens and representatives of other countries using American IT companies," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "These newly uncovered facts once again convincingly prove what Moscow has been warning about for years: American intelligence services have for decades been using tech companies to collect information on Internet users without their consent on a large scale. Evidence of such illegal activities pops up every year."

The diplomats pointed out that no state "has the authority to abuse its technological capabilities in such a sensitive sphere as access to the personal data of smartphone users."

In this context, the ministry noted that the US is a state that "places itself above the law." "Evidence of the double standards of this country, its intelligence services and companies in the field of international information security has been presented to the UN on several occasions," the statement said.

In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry called on all the interested parties to create clear and fair regulatory mechanisms in the digital sphere, which should be mandatory for all states and developers of IT technologies. "This is the goal of Russia’s initiatives within the framework of the UN’s open-ended working group on the security of and in the use of information and communications technologies. In particular, this is about the idea of such a convention and a global registry for information exchange on computer incidents," the diplomats added.