The Federal Oversight Service for Communication, IT, and the Media, commonly known as Roscomnadzor, issued a new directive for keeping personal information private.

The directive, laid out in the form of guidelines, not only sets out the requirements for making personal data anonymous, but also details the algorithm for doing so.

Roscomnadzor released the new guidelines on December 18, 2013.

According to the agency’s announcement, the government has already endorsed the methods sanctioned by the new directive. In connection with the introduction of new standards, Roscomnadzor’s officials indicated that they intend to start conducting individual compliance verifications as of the second quarter of 2014.

As it follows from the agency’s report, personal information is to be made anonymous in the course of any data processing operation by means of withholding or changing particular identifiers, such as names and subject connectors. Data processors are under the obligation to protect the integrity of their systems and to guard them against intrusions and breaches even if the personal information stored is made anonymous.