Yulia Galyamina said that VKontakte gave the Investigative Committee the phone numbers of people who viewed her page. The social network explained how this could have happened

Municipal deputy of the Timiryazevsky district of Moscow Yulia Galyamina reported on Twitter that representatives of VKontakte gave the Investigative Committee employees the phone numbers of users who visited her page on the social network.

"There's nothing to say here. They collect phone numbers of those who visit (not like, not repost, but just visit) my VK page," Galyamina said .

The deputy published a photograph from the materials of the criminal case on repeated violation of the rules of rallies , for which she was sentenced to a suspended sentence in December. The published document, among other things, states that “information was received from OOO VKontakte about the phone numbers of users of social pages who viewed the publications of Galyamina Yu.E. with calls for participation in the above-mentioned mass events.”

Galyamina's lawyer Maria Eismont told The Insider that investigators received from the VKontakte administration "phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses of all users who not only wrote the post, but simply liked Galyamina's post."

The VKontakte press service told Meduza that it is impossible to provide data on page visitors. The company representative noted that VKontakte does not have a “Page Guests” function, and the social network does not collect, display, or transmit such data to anyone.

VKontakte emphasized that, like any other company, it is obliged to respond to lawful requests from law enforcement agencies, but the social network cannot disclose details about the request, nor the fact of its receipt. The company noted that even if a request is received, it is processed "exclusively within the framework of the law - after checking all the necessary requirements for such requests."

But, theoretically speaking, the investigators could have independently studied the user's page. It is not closed by privacy settings, so when viewing the page, it was possible to identify everyone who left a comment or a "Like" mark, and then send official requests to us in accordance with the procedure established by law regarding these users. And in such a case, we are also obliged to respond to the request if it complies with the requirements of the law. At the same time, in the absolute majority of cases, law enforcement agencies do not inform us of the specific circumstances of criminal cases - the legislation does not contain such a requirement.