'Cybergulag': Russia looks to surveillance technology to enforce lockdown
Russia is considering aggressive new surveillance methods as the country seeks to enforce mandatory shelter-inplace orders in cities including Moscow and St Petersburg and other regions across its 11 time zones.
While the details of the new monitoring system have not been confirmed, official statements and leaked plans have indicated they could include mobile apps that track users’ location, CCTV cameras with facial recognition software, QR codes, mobile phone data and credit card records.
The hastily developed patchwork to monitor individuals’ movements could tell authorities whether Russians had broken coronavirus lockdowns for reasons other than those allowed: seeking medical care, visiting the grocery store, the pharmacy, or traveling to an authorised job. Leaked plans indicate that parts of the system may go online this weekend.
While there remain questions about whether the technology is viable, opposition politicians have warned that the government is laying the groundwork for a “cybergulag,” with a new system of enhanced surveillance that could remain active even after the current crisis passes.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin told Russians that he would extend the country’s “non-working” days, saying they should stay at home until the end of the month.
On the same day, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, signed legislation that would allow city authorities to identify and fine people who had violated the shelter-at-home order.
Supporters said that the law would maintain public safety during the coronavirus outbreak, while opponents said it gave the government dangerous powers.
“There’s no certainty that the system for surveilling Muscovites deployed during the pandemic will ever be rolled back,” said Maxim Kruglov, a municipal deputy for the opposition Yabloko faction.
Russian officials like Sobyanin and Mikhail Mishustin, the prime minister, have promised technological solutions to enforce a self-isolation regime that could last weeks or months. But despite unrivalled political control, there are doubts about whether the government has the resources and coordination to develop the kind of mass surveillance system that has emerged elsewhere, such as in China.
Alexander Isavnin of the Internet Protection Society said that many of the controls being discussed, such as the sharing of users’ mobile data, were difficult to implement and unconstitutional. More importantly, he said, the heavy-handed measures would evoke public anger among Russians.
“I don’t think that a Chinese scenario is possible,” said Isavnin, referring to that country’s mass surveillance methods. “People are going to react very poorly to [this technology]. They’re probably going to find a way to sabotage it.”
One attempt has already sparked a backlash: a clumsy mobile application developed by Moscow’s city government to monitor coronavirus patients’ movements. The app, called Social Monitoring, was discovered last week in the Google Play store and requested access to a user’s location, camera, telephone, sensors and other data to ensure they were complying with quarantine.
Social Monitoring quickly disappeared from the online store. Eduard Lysenko, the head of Moscow’s Department of Information Technologies, called the application a “test version” released for professional feedback. It would be re-released, he said, and those opposed to installing the app on their phones could opt to receive a temporary device instead.
Lysenko also said that Moscow is ready to roll out QR codes that would require Muscovites to register online and reapply each time they sought to leave the house. Citizens will be required to “register, fill out a simple form and a corresponding code will be generated, which can either be put on a telephone, sent by mail, or printed,” he said. Those codes could then be checked by police officers and others with access to a central database.
That system still has not been rolled out, amid concerns about enforcement and the lack of an official order from the Moscow mayor’s office.
For now, Moscow’s quarantine has been lightly policed. That could soon change. Russian media leaked draft plans from the Moscow’s mayor office to toughen enforcement of the quarantine beginning this weekend. The plans said the city would use cameras with facial recognition, banking data, QR codes, physical patrols on the streets and the social monitoring mobile application to keep tabs on people’s movements.
Russia’s communications ministry has also said it plans to use mobile operator data to help enforce the self-isolation regime. The first time a person’s phone leaves their permitted area, they will receive a text message, the agency said. “If the violations happen systematically, then the [mobile] operators will present the data to law enforcement.”
Russia’s moves to strengthen surveillance measures mirror similar developments in other countries. On Thursday, Roskomsvoboda, a Russian NGO, released an interactive map to chart “violations of digital rights” around the world as a result of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.