Security software specialist Kaspersky Lab has opened announced the opening of a new Transparency Centre in Madrid following the one inaugurated in Zurich in November. The centre is designed to serve as a trusted facility for the company’s partners and government stakeholders to come and check source code of its products. It’s located in the company’s Spanish HQ in Pozuelo de Alarcon in northern Madrid and will open for its first visitors in June. Along with being a place to undertake “standard” source code review, the Spanish facility will also serve as a briefing centre, where visitors can learn more about the company’s portfolio, engineering and data processing practices.
Its development is part of the company’s Global Transparency Initiative – a set of measures being brought to life in order to fulfill growing demand from partners and government stakeholders for more information on how Kaspersky Lab’s products and technologies work. Last year it started moving a number of core processes from Russia to Switzerland following the decision of several governments, including the US, UK and Netherlands, to restrict use of Kaspersky products due to its alleged links to the Russian state, claims strongly refuted by the company.
Kaspersky also announced the publication of the results of a voluntary third-party legal assessment aimed at providing an independent evaluation of the obligations the company adheres to in line with Russian legislation. The assessment was conducted by a prominent Russian and international law expert, Dr. Kaj Hober, Professor of International Investment and Trade Law at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Kaspersky said the analysis covers three Russian laws related to data processing and storage, which were widely reported as the ones with which Kaspersky Lab is obliged to comply. Based on Dr. Kaj Hober’s review, Kaspersky said it does not fall under obligations of those legal acts primarily due to the nature of its activities.
