Speech by the co-chairman of the OD Committee on the Protection of Personal Data, editor-in-chief of RIA Katyusha Andrey Tsyganov at the parliamentary hearings in the State Duma
Dear Vyacheslav Viktorovich!
Dear participants in the parliamentary hearings!
The key element of the "Digital Economy" is the personal data of citizens, which are socialized in state information systems and, in fact, no longer depend on their owners. The amount of information collected is constantly increasing, which means that the possibilities of abuse and manipulation of human behavior are also increasing. For this reason alone, this topic requires a delicate attitude and legislative guarantees against arbitrariness.
We all know about the norms of the Constitution on the protection of private life, norms 210-FZ "On public services", which guarantee the possibility of obtaining these services in traditional paper form, article 5 of the Federal Law "On personal data", which prohibits the combination of heterogeneous information in one database, and finally, the position of the President, who gave instructions to the Government on April 26, 2017 to minimize the collected PD and localize them at the place of origin of such data. In reality, however, these guarantees often do not work. So, 482-FZ "On biometric identification" provides for the voluntariness of entering the Unified identification and authentication system. However, in fact, many banks, in particular Sberbank and cellular companies such as MTS, refuse to serve people who do not want to go through biometric registration. Particularly strong pressure is exerted on dependent categories of the population, in particular,servicemen and state employees. We have already had to deal with cases when the refusal to take biometrics led to dismissal from military units and military universities. A similar situation with SNILS. Heads of schools, universities, employers, banks, clinics, local governments everywhere refuse to provide services to citizens who do not have SNILS, although the current Civil Code calls the main identifier of a person his full name, and not the SNILS number or registration card in the Unified identification and authentication system. In St. Petersburg, state employees are actually imposed on the so-called. “A single card of a Petersburg citizen”, which is both a personal identifier and a means of payment.banks, clinics, local governments everywhere refuse to serve citizens who do not have SNILS, although the current Civil Code calls the main identifier of a person his full name, and not the SNILS number or registration card in the ESIA. In St. Petersburg, state employees are actually imposed on the so-called. “A single card of a Petersburg citizen”, which is both a personal identifier and a means of payment.banks, clinics, local governments everywhere refuse to serve citizens who do not have SNILS, although the current Civil Code calls the main identifier of a person his full name, and not the SNILS number or registration card in the ESIA. In St. Petersburg, state employees are actually imposed on the so-called. “A single card of a Petersburg citizen”, which is both a personal identifier and a means of payment.
Meanwhile, a significant number of Russians refuse to submit biometric data and use SNILS and other digital identifiers for religious reasons. In a recent statement by the legal department of the Russian Orthodox Church on Law 48-FZ on SNILS, it is said that "if a citizen has not received such a number and a personal account has not been opened for him, he is not entitled to receive a pension and social support." Moreover, the implementation of the announced plans of the Government on the compulsory introduction of digital profiles of citizens and electronic passports without a paper alternative is inadmissible.
Along with the religious feelings of believers, these initiatives threaten personal and national security.
The draft law on the CP approved by the Government provides that the composition of the data included in the CP is determined not by the law, but by the Government, which means that it can include any information from 150 existing state information centers. At the same time, banks and mobile operators are entitled to confirm the correctness of the identifier, i.e. are included in the state system of electronic interaction, which can give rise to PD leaks. If government agencies collect information about citizens using multiservice telecommunication networks protected from Internet access, then commercial companies exchange information through cloud storage on the Internet, which is almost entirely based on imported software and hardware. Thus, large volumes of personal data may end up in the hands of people whom no one authorized and whose activities we cannot influence. Art. 2 of the draft law on CP says that "the submission of PD gives consent to their processing, revokes such consent in the form of a signed document reinforced with an electronic signature." And what about citizens who do not want or cannot start an electronic signature, especially in the light of the recent scandals with the theft of apartments using fake electronic signature?
Promotional video:
The links of our opponents to the fact that all our data is already known to Yandex and social networks seem to be untenable. We have a large category of people who protect themselves from the collection of information by commercial companies - the military, intelligence officers, secret carriers who are prohibited from using smartphones and creating pages on social networks. The creation of unified state registers of the population and mandatory for all digital profiles and electronic passports is fatal for the safety of these people, and therefore the state.
Finally, I would like to say a few words about the danger of abuse of artificial intelligence. The federal project "Digital Public Administration" stipulates that by December 31, 2020, a person should be "excluded from the decision-making process in the provision of priority public services." Those. now, when we come to a government body, we are dealing with a person - whom we can convince, appeal against his actions. In the new digital reality, all decisions will be made by artificial intelligence, the algorithms of which are not laid down in Russia. Our society, for the most part, adheres to traditional values that are very different from the values of AI developers, so for people who defend their worldview, there is a high risk of being thrown out of life on charges, for example, of extremism. And that's not to mentionthat according to market experts, the total introduction of AI can leave millions of Russians unemployed in the coming years, which also will not add stability to the political system.
I believe that citizens should receive a legally guaranteed traditional alternative to non-digital interaction with the state and commercial structures, which was promised by the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society. The lawyers of public organizations have prepared specific legislative proposals on the protection of citizens' personal data, which were sent to the WG State Duma, we urge you to take them into account in your work.
