The possible use of a Single Biometric System to catch violators is controversial.
The Ministry of Digital Development, together with relevant departments, is recommended to work out the issue "on establishing the identity of the violator based on photo and video materials using the Unified Biometric System". This is stated in the list of decisions following the meeting of the Commission of the State Council of the Russian Federation in the direction of "Communications, communications, digital economy", which was reviewed by Izvestia.
The document signed by the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobyov does not provide a list of specific offenses. In addition, it is recommended to simplify the procedure for bringing to justice citizens whose offenses were caught on camera.
Under the "penalty" identification of the EBS, theoretically, any citizen registered in it, the violation of which was captured by a video surveillance camera — in Moscow alone there are more than 200 thousand of them, a Izvestia source in one of the state structures suggested. In his opinion, such systems can record, and their operators — in a simplified manner issue fines for a variety of offenses provided for by the Administrative Code.
"Such violations include, for example, crossing the street, smoking and drinking alcohol in the wrong places, street brawls, building bonfires and using barbecues in unknown locations, creating spontaneous landfills and much more," the Izvestia source said. The Ministry of Digital Resources received a decision on the results of the commission meeting and is studying the document, the agency told the publication.
A little later, the ministry said that the use of EBS for tracking and tracing violators of public order and criminals is prohibited by law. The ministry stressed that the information spread in the media about this is unreliable, and such an issue is not being worked out or discussed. The press service of the Ministry of Digital Development clarified that the EBS is not connected with city video surveillance systems and cannot be used in operational search activities.
EBS is designed to increase the availability of various services, registration in the system is voluntary, and forcing the submission of biometric data is prohibited by Law No. 572 on biometrics. "No one can force a citizen to use the EBS or refuse to provide services if they do not want to register in the system," the Ministry of Digital Development stressed.
The Human Rights Council (HRC) has opposed the use of EBS to identify offenders. The head of the Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, said that at the end of 2023, the EBS contained biometric data of only a small part of Russians. He called discriminatory the situation in which citizens whose data is not available in the EBS, will be able to avoid punishment for offenses. Fadeev stressed that the forced surrender of biometric data is unacceptable and contrary to the Constitution. In addition, he expressed doubts that "smart" cameras will not be able to recognize individuals with a high degree of reliability, which will lead to errors and an additional burden on the courts.
The Ministry of Digital Development, together with relevant departments, is recommended to work out the issue "on establishing the identity of the violator based on photo and video materials using the Unified Biometric System". This is stated in the list of decisions following the meeting of the Commission of the State Council of the Russian Federation in the direction of "Communications, communications, digital economy", which was reviewed by Izvestia.
The document signed by the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobyov does not provide a list of specific offenses. In addition, it is recommended to simplify the procedure for bringing to justice citizens whose offenses were caught on camera.
Under the "penalty" identification of the EBS, theoretically, any citizen registered in it, the violation of which was captured by a video surveillance camera — in Moscow alone there are more than 200 thousand of them, a Izvestia source in one of the state structures suggested. In his opinion, such systems can record, and their operators — in a simplified manner issue fines for a variety of offenses provided for by the Administrative Code.
"Such violations include, for example, crossing the street, smoking and drinking alcohol in the wrong places, street brawls, building bonfires and using barbecues in unknown locations, creating spontaneous landfills and much more," the Izvestia source said. The Ministry of Digital Resources received a decision on the results of the commission meeting and is studying the document, the agency told the publication.
A little later, the ministry said that the use of EBS for tracking and tracing violators of public order and criminals is prohibited by law. The ministry stressed that the information spread in the media about this is unreliable, and such an issue is not being worked out or discussed. The press service of the Ministry of Digital Development clarified that the EBS is not connected with city video surveillance systems and cannot be used in operational search activities.
EBS is designed to increase the availability of various services, registration in the system is voluntary, and forcing the submission of biometric data is prohibited by Law No. 572 on biometrics. "No one can force a citizen to use the EBS or refuse to provide services if they do not want to register in the system," the Ministry of Digital Development stressed.
The Human Rights Council (HRC) has opposed the use of EBS to identify offenders. The head of the Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, said that at the end of 2023, the EBS contained biometric data of only a small part of Russians. He called discriminatory the situation in which citizens whose data is not available in the EBS, will be able to avoid punishment for offenses. Fadeev stressed that the forced surrender of biometric data is unacceptable and contrary to the Constitution. In addition, he expressed doubts that "smart" cameras will not be able to recognize individuals with a high degree of reliability, which will lead to errors and an additional burden on the courts.
