Legal regime of account: Approaches to defining a virtual object of law

This article examines issues that have been insufficiently developed in Russian jurisprudence concerning the legal nature of accounts in information systems (on the example of social networks) and the legal status of persons who have a legitimate interest in protecting their accounts. In practice, various terms such as “user”, “owner”, “participant”, “rights holder”, “proprietor”, etc. are used to refer to the entity that controls an account, which serves as a common type of virtual object. In setting out to formulate a scientifically sound conclusion about the legal rights of account subjects, we consider the features of their legal regime. Existing approaches to defining the legal regime of an account as an object of information and/or civil legal relations are analyzed in the light of law enforcement practice in the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany concerning social network account ownership to draw conclusions about the dual nature of accounts as virtual objects. The study is based on general (analysis, synthesis, analogy) and specific methods (comparative legal and formal legal approaches). Proposed amendments to Federal Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 “On Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection” are aimed at eliminating the existing legal gap and bringing certainty to public relations related to the use of social media accounts. It is concluded that an account is an object of legal relations and digital data, the information rights to which (e.g., right of ownership and access to the account) acquire the characteristics of property rights in the context of the digital data economy for the purposes of participation in civil circulation. The results obtained can be used in legislative and law enforcement activities, including in the resolution of disputes related to the ownership of accounts, as well as in the study of the legal nature of other types of virtual objects (digital currencies, domain names, etc.).