MOSCOW, July 3 (RAPSI) - President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on privacy, which was duly recorded on the database of regulatory acts on Wednesday.

The new legislation amends the Civil Code, limiting the proliferation of information on an individual's private life and banning the distribution of false information even if it is not defamatory.

As previously reported, the new law introduces a regulation on protecting an individual in the event of false information being spread about them, even if it is not discrediting. Until recently, Russian legislation did not have such a provision.

However, if an individual succeeds in demanding the refutation of discrediting information and the destruction of data storage devices used for its distribution, compensation for moral damages and in certain cases criminal prosecution under the article on defamation, then in the event of the distribution of false but not discrediting information, only a refutation can be demanded but without compensation.

"The law introduces a separate article on protecting an individual's privacy," the explanatory note to the new law reads. "This article does not allow the collection, storage, distribution or use of confidential information without the individual's consent, except in cases directly specified by the law. It will also be illegal to use such private information while creating works of literature, art or science if this infringes on an individual's interests."