MOSCOW, February 26 (RAPSI) - The State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building has recommended that the lower house pass a bill on the prevention of personal data leaks in the first reading, TASS reports Thursday.

The initiative was proposed in late 2013 by several senators, including the Chair of the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, as well as Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, Dmitry Vyatkin.

Companies that are subject to data leaks will have to report the incident to the authorities, according to the proposed changes. Currently, they conceal the fact to avoid financial liability and reputation damage, the authors of the bill explain.

If approved, the bill would authorize the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) to record data leak related administrative violations. Currently this requires an order from a prosecutor.

Additionally, fines for data leaks would be increased from the current several thousand rubles.

The bill would also require obtaining consent from individuals for personal data processing remotely in addition to a signature on a consent form in person. The bill specifically describes the terms of cross-border data transfer. If a personal data processing agreement signed with a foreign company is up to Russian standards of security, it will be recognized as legitimate under the new rules.