COMPANY PROFILE

Yandex

Founded: 1997 · Listed: MOEX: YDEX

3 fines or sanctions2 data breaches

What it does and how it makes money

Russian technology company offering search, maps, cloud, streaming, online shopping, food delivery and ride-hailing. Since July 2024 it has been owned by Russian investors, after its former Dutch parent (now Nebius Group) sold the business.

It makes money from advertising on its search engine and services, from ride-hailing, delivery and e-commerce fees, and from subscriptions. ^[1]

What data it collects about you

According to its privacy policy, it collects name, phone, address and age, device and browser data, IP address, cookies, search and purchase history, location and payment data. It uses them to provide its services and to personalise ads and offers. ^[2]

How it turns your data into money

Yandex's privacy policy (effective 31/10/2025) names YANDEX LLC, a Russian company based in Moscow, and its affiliates as the data controller. Yandex collects what you provide and what your use of its sites and services generates (for example, your search queries) and uses it, among other purposes, to 'offer you other Yandex products and services or those of other companies we think may interest you (i.e. personalised advertising)'. It shares data with partners that display ads on their own sites and apps, and with advertisers offering targeted ads on Yandex services. If you search 'sneakers' on Yandex, you may see footwear ads on Yandex and on sites in its advertising network. ^[2]

Where it is incorporated

Yandex now operates through the Russian company MKPAO 'Yandex' (international public joint-stock company), registered in the special administrative district on Oktyabrsky Island in the Kaliningrad region, with operating headquarters in Moscow (Yandex LLC, 16 Lva Tolstogo St.). Until July 2024 the parent was Yandex N.V., a Dutch holding company that sold the Russian business to a consortium of investors for about $5.4 billion and was renamed Nebius Group. ^[3]

Taxes and low-tax countries

From 2007 to 2024 Yandex's holding company was incorporated in the Netherlands (Yandex N.V.), which listed on Nasdaq in 2011. After the 2024 sale of its Russian business, the new Russian parent was registered in the special administrative district on Oktyabrsky Island (Kaliningrad). ^[1]

Competition and monopoly

In February 2021 Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) issued a warning to Yandex and in March 2021 opened a case over alleged abuse of dominance by favouring its own group's services in its search engine's 'enriched results'. On January 19, 2022 Yandex announced a settlement with FAS and a consortium of Russian internet companies that closed the case without a fine: Yandex published uniform integration rules for all market participants including its own services, provides FAS information for compliance monitoring, undergoes an annual independent audit of ranking impartiality and contributed 1.5 billion rubles to the Russian Information Technology Development Fund. ^[4]

Money

Fines and sanctions

In total: 2.1 million RUB

• Tribunal de Moscú · Russia · June 20232 million RUB
  Repeatedly refusing to hand user information to the FSB (Russian security service), as Russian law requires. ^[1]
• Juzgado de paz n.º 101 de Zamoskvorechye (Moscú), a instancia de Roskomnadzor · Russia · August 202260,000 RUB
  Leak of personal data of Yandex Eda couriers (more than 700 records). ^[6]
• Juzgado de paz de Moscú · Russia · April 202260,000 RUB
  Mass leak of Yandex Eda customer data in March 2022. ^[7]

Data breaches and hacks

• March 1, 2022
  Yandex Eda (food delivery) reported a leak caused by an employee: names, phone numbers, delivery addresses and order details from June 2021 to February 2022. According to the DLBI service, it included 6,882,230 unique phone numbers from Russia and Kazakhstan. ^[8]
• February 12, 20214,887 people affected
  A Yandex system administrator was selling unauthorised access to users' mailboxes; 4,887 mailboxes were compromised. ^[9]

Ask it to delete your data

This is the page the company itself gives to ask it to delete your data or stop selling it: Open its page ^[10]

With GUARDIANA or GUARDIANA ZERO, you download from this same profile the letter asking it to delete your data, under your country’s law, ready to attach to an email.

Its website

https://yandex.ru/

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yandex
2. https://yandex.com/legal/confidential/
3. https://oborot.ru/news/yandeks-polnostyu-otdelilsya-ot-yandex-n-v-teper-est-mkpao-yandeks-i-nebius-group-i218035.html
4. https://yandex.com/company/news/19-01-2022
5. https://yastatic.net/s3/ir-docs/docs/2025/q4/fc756ee95baa6fa171ee77ac733d52be/4Q25_YDEX_Press_Release_ENG_short_6ee9.pdf
6. https://www.anti-malware.ru/news/2022-08-03-118537/39261
7. https://zona.media/news/2022/04/21/food
8. https://habr.com/ru/post/657237
9. https://yandex.com/company/press_center/press_releases/2021/2021-12-02
10. https://passport.yandex.ru/profile

What this profile does NOT say

• It does not say this company does anything illegal. The only thing it states about anyone’s legality is what a regulator or a court has already decided, with the date and the link to the source.
• It does not say what data of yours it holds: only the company knows, which is why you have the right to ask it.
• If you are this company and a fact is wrong, write to hola@guardianagroup.com and it will be corrected, with its date.

Public facts with their sources, checked on October 12, 2026. All profiles →