Transparency Report

This page includes the information about how Yandex handles requests from government agencies and the number of requests it receives.

Government requests for user data

Yandex regularly receives requests from government agencies regarding user data. We only consider those requests that have been submitted in accordance with all formal requirements. All requests are checked carefully to ensure their legitimacy. Yandex only provides the amount of information that is strictly required in order to fulfil the request. Any requests that fail to comply with all relevant procedural and legal requirements are turned down. Yandex does not provide responses to requests that do not comply with such requirements. Such requests are not reflected in the statistics below.
This page contains statistical information about requests for user data received by Yandex. The report does not include statistics about information disclosure under Article 10.1 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27.07.2006. You can read more about our commitment to our users’ privacy here.

Requests for user information on our core services

2024 2HY

Total

Requests

41,439

Refusals

13,384

Mail

Requests

3,126

Refusals

1,345

Yandex ID

Requests

2,663

Refusals

971

Ridetech

Requests

26,405

Refusals

8,559

Foodtech

Requests

7,622

Refusals

2,021

Verticals

Requests

276

Refusals

176

Geo

Requests

1,136

Refusals

190

Media

Requests

53

Refusals

40

Other

Requests

158

Refusals

82

  • Why do you have to disclose user information at all?

    Government agencies can request certain data and information about Yandex users by law. A number of laws, such as “On Police”, “On Operational and Investigative Activities” and others, clearly define what constitutes the ground for request, as well as what data can be requested by government agencies and how soon we should respond.

  • Who can request user data from Yandex?

    The list of government agencies with such powers varies based on a country and the local laws. According to the laws of the Russian Federation, for instance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Federal Tax Service, courts, and others, have the authority to request user data and information.

  • What kind of a request can be considered compulsory?

    To be considered compulsory, a request must be submitted in accordance with the law. A request submitted in writing must be on the official letterhead with the agency’s contact information, signed by the authorized person, and, in some cases, certified by the original seal. An electronic request is considered compulsory only if it is certified with a qualified electronic signature.

  • Why do you not disclose data for all your services?

    We disclose data for those services and businesses that receive the highest number of requests. Besides, requests for user data on most Yandex services relate to the data on Yandex ID, which is reflected in the statistics.

  • Is it true that you can provide data by email in response to a compulsory request?

    No, it is not true. We can only respond to requests using official communication channels. Email, for instance, as well as phone or a messenger app, is not among official communication channels.

  • What will happen if you refuse to provide information in response to a compulsory request?

    Failure to provide information in response to an official request, which has been submitted and received officially, may result in a penalty, and, in some cases, suspension of the company’s activities and even criminal liability for its CEO.

  • Why does the company not inform users when it receives requests for their data?

    We are legally prohibited from doing this in most countries where we operate, including Russia, where this is stipulated in Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

  • Can access to my email or messenger account also become available on request?

    No, it cannot. Access to someone’s email or personal correspondence can only be provided by a court order that restricts a person’s right to privacy of correspondence. Such information cannot be disclosed without a court order.

Access to personal data

Yandex ensures that the data that belongs to its users is safe and secure. Yandex users can access and manage their data through their personal account Yandex ID. Starting from June 1, 2021, they can export their data from various Yandex services and download it as an archive or delete their data from specific services.
These figures show the number of users’ requests to download or delete their data between July and the end of December 2024. Multiple requests may come from the same user.

Removal requests

178,453

Download requests

95,585

Requests to delist content under the “right to be forgotten” law

In this section, you will find information regarding requests to delist search results under Federal Law 264 of 13.07.2015, also known as the “right to be forgotten” law. This law requires search engines to remove links to unlawful, untrue or outdated information about the requester from their search results.
The data below shows the number of URLs requested to be removed from Yandex Search results by category of reason for removal: outdated, untrue or unlawful content, as well as the number and percentage of refusals.
Some URLs may have more than one reason for removal and can be included into more than one category, which means that the sum of the number of URLs in each category does not equal the total number of URLs requested to be removed from our search results.
Only those requests that have been submitted electronically and according to all applicable requirements are reflected in the statistics.

Number of URLs requested to be delisted under the “right to be forgotten” law

2024 2HY

Outdated

URLs received

5,241

URLs refused

1,475

Untrue

URLs received

2,211

URLs refused

292

Unlawful

URLs received

2,945

URLs refused

471

Roskomnadzor requests for content removal

To comply with Russian laws, Yandex is required to remove search results that link to websites included in Roskomnadzor’s register of prohibited websites. Links to such websites are removed automatically as soon as they appear in this register.
A total of 374,959 links have been removed between July and the end of December 2024. Yandex is also legally required to comply with Roskomnadzor’s requests to remove prohibited content from its servers. These requests may concern the content on one of our content-based services, such as Q or Yandex Music, as well as images, Turbo pages, cached copies of web pages or other objects.
Content removals, by service, July-December 2024

Music

107

Turbo pages

129

Disk

41

Others

612

Protecting the interests of copyright holders

Yandex supports copyright holders, including by developing solutions that help them effectively combat copyright infringement. In the fall of 2018, Yandex signed the Memorandum of Cooperation for Protecting Exclusive Rights alongside a number of other major IT companies and copyright holders. This Memorandum resulted in creation of a register of links to pages potentially violating the owner’s copyright. Continually updated by copyright holders, this register lets Yandex quickly remove links to these pages from its search results.
Since the signing of the Memorandum, Yandex has removed a total of 61,519,314 links from its search results at the request of copyright holders, while the number of links removed between July and the end of December 2024 reached 345,261,136.