eBay Just Set a Bad Precedent by Giving in to Russia's Demands for User Data

​The Russian government wants every tech company to store all personal data about Russian users inside the country, a measure that critics say is just about giving Vladimir Putin's government a better chance to censor and monitor the internet.

Now, Russia has convinced the first big internet giant to accept its request, and experts think it could be just the beginning. On Monday, Russian media repor​ted that eBay was ready to commit to complying with the law, which becomes mandatory on September 1, 2016, and an eBay spokesperson confirmed the reports to Motherboard on Tuesday.

"We will comply," Johnna Hoff, eBay's director of communications, said via email, before adding that the company is now in the process of working out all the kinks and figuring out all the requirements.

"We have met with the regulators in charge of the new law in Russia to clarify the requirements," Hoff said. "We are now determining how best to apply the new regulations to ensure an optimal solution for eBay customers in that market."

Paypal, which is owned by eBay, is also reportedly making the same promise, but the company did not respond to Motherboard's request for comment.

This deal, according to digital rights experts, is a big win for Putin for two reasons. One, it proves Silicon Valley giants are willing to negotiate and accept Russia's terms, and it might pave the way for more similar deals.

"The larger question is what ebay's decision portends for companies like Twitter and Facebook," Emily Parker, the author of Now I Know Who ​My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet Underground told, Motherboard. "If they don't agree to store user data on Russian servers, will they eventually be blocked in Russia?"

If that happens, or if the social media sites decide to comply with the law, it "would be another serious blow to internet freedom" in Russia, according to Parker, given that "Twitter and Facebook are among the last relatively free platforms for Russian dissent."

It's unclear whether other tech companies have already agreed or plan to comply with Russia. In September of last year, Russian media repor​ted that Google was in talks with the government, but the company has never confirmed it.

The second reason is that Putin could use the deal with eBay to argue that the data localization law is not about surveillance but about securing Russians' personal data, since he reached a deal with e-commerce giant eBay, according to Andrei Soldatov, an independent journalist who has written extensively about Russia's surveillance powers, told Motherboard.

However, Soldatov told Motherboard, the law is in fact about surveillance, since Russian law requires companies that have servers inside the country to equip them with surveillance-ready gear, or "black boxes," as part of Russia's monitor​ing system known as SORM. (Although, it has to be noted, Russian law only compels telecommunications companies, such as ISPs, to install SORM)

What's worse, according to Peter Micek, an attorney at digital rights organization Access, this could give other countries some ideas.

"Big Internet companies' attempts to satisfy repressive regimes' terms is a race to the bottom. User trust, security, and corporate ethics are too easily discarded in exchange for expanding profit margins," he told Motherbaord. "Now other repressive governments can take Russia's example and seek to pass similar laws and tighten their grips over how their citizens behave online."

This story has been updated to clarify that Russian law only requires telecommunication companies to install SORM surveillance systems.