The biometrics of every citizen will be stolen by the state!

Hello.

Business publications day by day take new heights on the way to the yellow press, which is chasing

exclusively behind scandals, intrigues andinvestigations. It has become customary that the inventions of journalists are presented as something real, which is guaranteed to cause a surge of discussion, curses against officials who do not think about people and generally behave indecently. It is easy to find pain points, they are known to everyone - we draw the image of an official who passes a law directed against Vasya Pupkin and all the inhabitants of the country, we add an “expert” opinion to make it scarier. At the same time, it is desirable to intimidate a person so that he is afraid to stick his nose out of the house. The recipe for a scandal is ready, it is guaranteed to be spread throughout the country and will be widely discussed. Let's look at the anatomy of fiction with a specific example from our field. We read the publication of the Kommersant newspaper, you can find it here.

The newspaper saw a letter with amendments to the projectMintsifra, which discusses the collection and storage of data in the Unified Biometric System (EBS, conducted by Rostelecom on behalf of the state). One of the moments is specially highlighted in the text so that it catches the eye.

And then write the following:“In the explanatory note, the authors of the amendments refer to the fact that the placement of biometrics from the EBS from other information systems without the consent of the subject is enshrined in amendments to the Law “On Information” adopted on July 6.”

These passages can be interpreted unequivocally:the state, without the permission of the people, will collect the biometrics of each citizen and keep it in a single database. Then journalists add horror at the expense of experts who say that everything is bad. In particular, the note states that "biometrics will be collected continuously from any possible sources." And then they are listed - cameras on the streets, in the MFC, banks, and so on. A terrible atmosphere is being built up that a total surveillance society is being created around us, where we do not manage our data. On this occasion, I want to sing: "I blinded you from what was." The anatomy of fiction is simple, but the technology of creating a fake works and, most importantly, emotionally involves everyone without exception. Even people who are far from technology, but who understand that the described proposals are harmful in every sense.

Why does the Kommersant newspaper do this?Quote and nothing more. The fact that in the course of creating such inventions they cause maximum harm to the country and all its inhabitants is not taken into account. There is also commercial interest, the main thing is that they quote, but they won’t particularly scold for inventions. In the worst case, they will demand a retraction, which will be printed in minimal type at the end of the newspaper, but no one will read it. And most importantly, by then the damage will be done.

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This note was quoted by many, with the waythe publications of Kommersant are carried around the cities and villages, there are no problems, the newspaper is popular in other media - on the radio, in print versions, in telegram channels.

Let's show the typical comments about this news that appeared in the channel about life in St. Petersburg (the most untargeted channel, right?).

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This is exactly what I was talking about, fictionjournalists begin to live their own lives and create an image of the state and officials who want only to ban something, collect and not let it go. Moreover, this stereotype has been hammered in for many years, mostly by the propaganda of other countries, but why the inhabitants of our country are involved in this, I do not understand. There are situations when officials are wrong, there are quite a lot of such situations, and they need to be discussed publicly. I have no doubts about this. But making up stories to exploit the stereotype? What for?

Let's give the word to the Ministry of Digital Development, after the publication of the material, the department had to spend a day to add its commentary to thousands of publications (not all of them have been accepted yet!), To publish a press release:

In connection with the reports of the Ministry of Digital Development that appeared in the mediaclarifies that the prepared draft order does not imply the cancellation of obtaining the consent of citizens to collect their biometric data. The draft order is supposed to regulate the processes of importing previously collected biometric data stored in commercial systems, mainly in banks, into the state unified biometric system. The draft order was sent for discussion to working groups with representatives of the expert community, including to assess the regulatory impact on citizens and businesses.

Key provisions of the draft order:

1. Without the consent of citizens, the collection of any biometric data is impossible

It is possible to collect and donate biometrics only on a voluntary basis and only with the consent of a citizen:

- through a bank
— independently through a mobile application (from September 30, 2022)
- in the future - through the MFC

Unable to collect biometrics:

- from surveillance cameras
- from other sources that do not require prior consent

2. Mandatory loading of biometrics from commercial systems into the EBS is provided for by federal law No. 325-FZ

At the same time, only thosebiometric data that is collected in accordance with federal laws, that is, with the consent of the citizen. A citizen whose data is transferred to the EBS must be notified about this by the owner of the commercial system (bank) with mandatory information about the procedure for revoking the storage of data in the EBS and their destruction.

The citizen will also be informed about the transferhis data in the EBS in his personal account at the State Services. In the same place, he will be able to apply for the removal of his biometric data from the EBS. The draft order is aimed at clarifying the relevant procedures.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation will carefully monitor that, when transferring data from commercial systems to the EBS, citizens:

- be sure to receive notifications
— could, at their own request, send a request to stop storing data in the EBS and delete the relevant data.

3. Information from multiple commercial systems will not "mix"

If the citizen's biometric data is containedin several commercial systems, only the most up-to-date data that meets the necessary quality standards will be stored when importing into the EBS. All other transmitted data will be deleted.

4. Data storage in EBS is more reliable than in commercial systems

EBS meets all the requirements of regulators inin the field of information security, the level of its security and the reliability of data storage is constantly checked and monitored. Storing biometric data in the EBS will ensure their reliable protection.

5. Biometrics is not required

Surrendering biometrics is a right of a citizen, which,thanks to remote identification of a person, it can increase the availability of a number of services. For example, thanks to biometrics, you can remotely take exams or pay for travel in transport without travel documents.

This is exactly the case when explanations are completelyrepeat what was said in the original document, there is nothing new here. And journalists could not help but understand this, or they are simply unsuitable in every sense of the word. But it is impossible to assume that people who have been writing about telecom for many years, suddenly simply forgot everything, turning to the Ministry of Digital Development for comments, did not hear what was said, it is impossible. I think that there was a simple desire to make the material citable, which means that it is customary to follow the path of "scandals, intrigues, investigations."

And here we have a big problem - creatinga myth that is spread by a business publication, and then it is forced to refute it in the Ministry of Digital Development. I repeatedly heard this explanation from journalists: “We are great, we stopped the Ministry of Digital Development, and they had to abandon their stupid plans. We've done our job!" There were no such plans, none. And this is the problem, that in the pursuit of sensations, topics are invented.

Suppose that the note would be written exactly according to theinformation that was - without total surveillance, collection of all data, and so on. The text would be dry and not interesting to the general public - the state exchanges data between its systems, exactly the same as it is done for passport data and other information. What's new? Nothing, just a new class of data that did not exist before is connected to the new system, and the principle of operation itself remains unchanged. At the state level, there were no data leaks from such databases, you can check this using passports, no global database has leaked anywhere. Individual small leaks have always existed, but they only confirm the absence of larger leaks.

If you want to do fiction - no problem!Call yourself "Murzilki" or something else, emphasize that you are publishing fiction, not real facts, and no questions will arise. But in this situation, great harm is done to the state and all the inhabitants of the country, since such publications give rise to distrust in the country and the direction of development. Our country needs digitalization like air, without it we will not be able to develop rapidly. On this path there are many real, not fictional problems, and we need to talk about them. But when, instead, the largest business newspaper is engaged in fiction, creating sensations out of the blue, hands drop. And then it gives those same officials a great tool. They can say that journalists have not understood anything about another, real topic that represents a problem, they do not understand anything.

The task of the press is to reveal problems, to createdialogue in society, to serve as a mediator between the state and people, and in different areas. But now it turns out that instead of dialogue, there is a confrontation, where each side goes about its own business and each considers the others to be narrow-minded. But the most important thing is that the press has moved to simply inventing news and events, deliberately manipulating them in order to provoke a reaction in society. And this is a deeply wrong approach.

P.S.And many people are simply afraid to say publicly what they think is right. Few people are ready to quarrel with the country's leading business publication, because they can be offended and just start shitting in retaliation. Pay attention to how the Ministry of Tsifra avoided mentioning Kommersant, but only recently made a public scolding to the Vedomosti newspaper, mentioned them in exactly the same context of inventing sensationalism. We all need to fix the broken system of working in society. Perhaps I am an idealist, but I am sure that if Kommersant starts doing journalism, everyone will benefit from this, and first of all the newspaper itself. Or am I too naive, what do you think?

I can’t talk about all areas of knowledge, but readingnotes about telecom in Kommersant, I have been experiencing a storm of emotions lately, there are already more fictions than real facts. For me, this is a kind of laughter panorama, and serious materials that are also present there are lost against the general background. Well, it would be a fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey, so fictions appear every week, and with varying degrees of reliability. In the professional telecom community, there is a growing understanding that reading Kommersant on our subject is not seriously worth it. So far, this is only an accumulation of negativity, the next stage will be what happened to the Vedomosti newspaper, when at some point they simply began to ignore it, since nothing sensible could be read there. And as my friend from telecom, not the last person on the market, said, “Now I don’t know how I can trust information from other areas that I don’t know about. If they carry such nonsense about telecom, then what about other topics? Is the failure systemic?

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