Will Russians have ID cards?

Russian Government plans to create a special system for population count, which entails distributions of personal codes for each resident of the country. This information has been reported by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development during a Thursday's meeting.

According to the Ministry's proposal, a similar system of population count already functions in almost 60 countries. Majority of Western European countries have the following system. There, each person possesses his/her personal ID number which is usually acquired during a person’s birth registration.

In Denmark, for instance, everyone has a plastic card. In case a person is stopped by the local police for exceeding certain speed limit, a policeman can also check whether or not the person has paid his taxes. In the US, for example, it is possible to acquire all sorts of data from one's Social Security number. Police can check whether a person has ever been convicted of anything as a minor.

Russian government however remains cautious about the new system. It believes that the newly created database will instantly be available to hackers. As experience shows, Russian computer geniuses are capable of deciphering any programs and selling pirated versions of millions of computer games, programs, DVDs, and whatnot. Therefore, it remains unclear how to create such database and such program in Russian conditions, informs “Gazeta”.

Lawyers and public authorities consider that such unified system of population count can turn into an evil instrument. “I am afraid that the entire information from the main computer will become available to the general public. Such data as one's nationality, religious beliefs, whether that person belongs to any particular political party can only be obtained in privacy and in accordance with a person's free will. This should be clearly stated by the law. Also, the law has to indicate under what circumstances one's personal data can be disclosed to another party. Many European countries and the US use this exact system. Russia however lacks even the simplest privacy law,” informs an expert of the Institute of Human Rights Lev Levinson. Similar worries were expressed by several of his colleagues.       

Source: NewsRu