CONCERNING THE ISSUE OF PROCEDURAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EVIDENTIARY INFORMATION ACQUIRED FROM THE INTERNET SOURCES

This paper considers the significant issue of a criminal procedure – the attachment of the evidential significance of the information acquired from the information resources. The authors show that the current national criminal procedure legislation does not regulate special aspects of the introduction of such information to the evidentiary base. The thesis is substantiated that the lack of appropriate procedural regulation adversely affects the legality of proof when investigating and considering criminal cases, the reliability, and credibility of the acquired evidence. Whereby, it is stated that the needs of the law enforcement practice insistently require the filling of the current legislative gap as the other creates the risk of admission of the acquired evidence as incompetent and, as a consequence, the termination of a criminal prosecution or the entry of a judgment of acquittal. The authors draw attention that the similar procedures are known already and work successfully in other areas of Russian law, for example, in respect to the perpetuation of evidence by the notary officers. In this connection, the authors substantiate the suggestions about the introduction of additions to the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure aimed at the introduction of a new type of survey, more specifically, a survey of the information objects of the Internet network and communication network channels. The authors substantiate as well the key distinctions of the proposed investigative activities from a standard survey of items and documents, which are mainly in the content of a protocol of inspection of the information resources, and consider the problem of provision of personal information about a network user by an organization rendering the Internet access services to an investigator (interviewer). Based on the analysis of current investigation practice, the conclusion is made about its contradiction to the constitutional guarantees for personal privacy established by the article 23 of the Russian Federation Constitution. Reasoning from this fact, the authors suggest protecting by law the possibility of requesting such information only on the basis of a judicial decision obtained under the procedure of the article 165 of the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure.