Abstract: The emergence and active use of information and communication technologies, primarily the Internet, has led to the fact that States exercise such a type of extraterritorial executive jurisdiction as direct access to data stored on the territory of another State.
The implementation of such actions is permissible in the case when the data is publicly available or access is carried out with the consent of the State. More controversial is the situation when the data is obtained with the legal and voluntary consent of a person who has the legal authority to disclose them.
Indirect cross-border access to information carried out by sending a request to an information service provider obliging, according to national legislation, to disclose information about its subscribers, regardless of its actual location, can also be regarded as contrary to international law.
In this regard, States continue to be guided by requests for international legal assistance, which does not contribute to the effective investigation of crimes related to the use of ICT and does not take into account the nature of electronic evidence.
The deepening of international cooperation within regional associations leads to the risk of the formation of country clusters, within which there are necessary procedures for cooperation between participants, but which, in relation to other countries, are limited to "traditional" types of international cooperation that do not take into account the peculiarities of electronic evidence.
Thus, it is necessary to develop common standards for remote access to data located on servers and devices located on the territory of a foreign state. Such documents should define procedures and rules for obtaining the consent of a person with authority for cross-border data disclosure, expand universal international cooperation, including by recognizing the possibility of sending direct requests for the provision of certain information about subscribers to information service providers, establish mechanisms for disclosure by information service providers of data under their control, but stored on servers, located on the territory of foreign states.