Moscow To Launch Mandatory Surveillance App To Track Residents In Coronavirus Lockdown (npr.org) 77
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: City authorities in Moscow are rolling out new digital "social monitoring" tools targeting the public, after what officials say were constant violations of the city's quarantine imposed this week to fight the spread of the new coronavirus. Under restrictions in place since Monday, most of the city's 12 million residents must remain indoors, barring a few exceptions -- like trips to the supermarket or pharmacy, taking out the trash or briefly walking the dog. But starting Thursday, Muscovites will have their movements tracked through a mandatory app required on their smartphones. Don't have one? The city says it will lend out devices.
In addition, Moscow residents will be obligated to register for a government-issued QR code -- a small square matrix bar code containing personal data. What information the codes will hold isn't yet clear. But Russians must present it on their smartphones or carry a printout of their QR profiles to present to police, when requested. (City officials say they're also preparing to educate the public -- and elder Russians, in particular -- on what a QR code actually is.) The new tools will merge with existing street cameras and face recognition software to quickly identify residents who stray from their homes and/or quarantines, say authorities. President Putin also signed a bill into law on Wednesday that introduces criminal penalties for skipping quarantine and infecting others. They include fines and up to seven years in prison.
In addition, Moscow residents will be obligated to register for a government-issued QR code -- a small square matrix bar code containing personal data. What information the codes will hold isn't yet clear. But Russians must present it on their smartphones or carry a printout of their QR profiles to present to police, when requested. (City officials say they're also preparing to educate the public -- and elder Russians, in particular -- on what a QR code actually is.) The new tools will merge with existing street cameras and face recognition software to quickly identify residents who stray from their homes and/or quarantines, say authorities. President Putin also signed a bill into law on Wednesday that introduces criminal penalties for skipping quarantine and infecting others. They include fines and up to seven years in prison.
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Trump's administration is working on tapping into the existing phone tracking the tech companies already do so they can better track citizen movements "during this crisis." i.e. - don't need to work at it in America. Most of us dumbasses have already given up our privacy for the convenience of having to be on-call with work 24/7.
Correct.
The same in Moscow. They have already use Face Recog which they actually excel at. They have already use ANPR. They have already used big data to combine the former two with data from border control and health authorities.They already tried to use some mobile tech too.
IIRC, the app as well as similar apps are rolled out in other regions in Russia( their lockdown is regionalized same as USA) will be is more like a digital pass - you are not on the list which is prohibited to leave home for being
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Because surely nothing else could be done. Don't pay any attention to the things that Governors like Gretchen Whitmer are asking to be done. Pretend that "Trump Haters" are demanding that THIS be done.
You can be such a putz.
Re:Open Question (Score:4, Insightful)
This medicine is used for other stuff. It is not approved for Covid-19, though there are some preliminary trials. It is however a vital medicne for some conditions, including Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. However the supplies have run very low and prescriptions are unable to be filled for many people, and symptoms are coming back in force. This is primarily because people are hording it, and doctors are prescribing it for alternate use and abusing the system (ie, getting prescriptions for it for their family).
Remember - this is NOT a Covid-19 remedy, it is NOT a Covid-19 preventative. Don't bug your doctor to get you any. And in general, don't be a moron and screw things up for other people.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
So it was proven to work on the last SARS coronavirus we saw. And there's a consensus among the anecdotal evidence from the current SARS coronavirus that it probably works.
But we definitely need 5 years of double-blind placebo controlled studies before we prescribe it to anyone with the current disease. How much are they paying you per post to keep the shutdown going?
By the way, "prescribing for alternate use" is called using a drug off-label, and doctors have been doing exa
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There's a middle ground between "use it NOW!" and "5 years of double-blink placebo studies". There are the anti-government people out there who prefer the former, and I prefer to ignore them as destroying all government is the solution to all their problems. But think of things like Laetrile which has bee proven as not being effective in any way to fight cancer yet has been pushed as a cancer cure since the 50s, with people flying down to Mexico where there are looser regulations just so that they can poi
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Wait - can you link some things Gretchen Whitmer is asking to be done? Everything I briefly find is mostly about extending her stay at home powers, source PPE/ventilators and requesting army corps assistance.
Thanks!
Re: Open Question (Score:2)
Michigander here.
She has been doing a good job of working in the administration to hammer out education details as schools have been closed and shall be for the remainder of the school year.
She has been making sure that unemployment benefits are changed to accommodate those out of work, freeze foreclosures, and is working on other forms of financial relief.
She has been clearing communicating with the departments to organise where field hospitals will be and how many beds may be necessary.
She is considering
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Once again, this is typical all-or-nothing thinking from an American. Good job on contributing to that stereotype!
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Once again, this is typical all-or-nothing thinking from an American. Good job on contributing to that stereotype!
I love the irony of your statement when placed above your signature.
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Well, Singapore, S. Korea, and China are both using location data from cell phones and/or apps for location contact tracing.
So lauding their efforts, which has been generally the case here when bashing US response, would generally imply some support of cell phone location tracking.
I agree there is a nuance on location tracking versus mandatory state developed app install - but I don't think that's what you were getting at?
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Well, Singapore, S. Korea, and China are both using location data
Which two are using it?
Re: Open Question (Score:1)
Big Brother will save us all from the Mexican Beer virus!! Death to freedom! Hail Satan!!
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For all you Trump Haters that seem to think nothing, or too little, is being done about Covid19 - is THIS what you want done? Would that be "enough" for you?
That's right! And if you have a light that is on a dimmer, strip that fucker out. A light should be either on, or off. None of this in between bullshit.
What's that called? False dichotomy?
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This entire panic is an engineered* overreation by those seeking power. Thus far, the Corona virus deaths worldwide are much lower than either the 2017-18 flu year, or the 2009-10 flu year. Heck, the 2017-18 flu year killed ~80k Americans, and most people never heard it was a bad year. So far, there's no sign this will be worse than the 2009-10 flu pandemic (swine flu), and we didn't bow to totalitarian lockdown and economic destruction then!
But I'm sure many in the US right now are dearly hoping for for
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This entire panic is an engineered* overreation by those seeking power. Thus far, the Corona virus deaths worldwide are much lower than either the 2017-18 flu year, or the 2009-10 flu year. Heck, the 2017-18 flu year killed ~80k Americans, and most people never heard it was a bad year. So far, there's no sign this will be worse than the 2009-10 flu pandemic (swine flu), and we didn't bow to totalitarian lockdown and economic destruction then!
Why the fuss? [worldometers.info]
Deaths in January 259
Deaths in February 3k
Deaths in March 50k
It's totally under control...
Why are you making it a big deal...
Re: Open Question (Score:1)
Re: Open Question (Score:1)
No no no! We must destroy every last shred of freedom. We must crush the human spirit with the iron boot. Only then can the plague gods be appeased.
Without totalitarianism the Mexican Beer virus is gonna kill us all!!!!!2!;3!!!!
Take out trash, wok the dog (Score:4, Funny)
Small communication problem in China.
Re:Who is surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
neither are the corporate fascists on the right wing either, or the police state goosesteppers....
all the power and money grubbing scum are jockeying for new positions
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I don't know, who you are talking about...
I gave a citation, but you wouldn't. Khmm...
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Would that be one of the endless propaganda corporate circle jerk citations, where they cite each other a half dozen or so, linking one to another and than around again, claiming each other as the authority and just a corporate propaganda scam. Citation are not worth that they used to be, just the way it is.
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Actually, no, even if you could cite that, it wouldn't be fascism. Corporations or, pardon me, KKKorporation$ sitting in their corporation buildings acting all corporationy [youtu.be], are simply the good old free market capitalism, which propelled America to where it is.
Fascism [ronpaulinstitute.org] is a Collectivist ideology, putting the Glorious Collective[TM] above the cantankerous Individual, who does not know, what's good for him. It does not go quite as far
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talking about big business with government in their pockets to make laws favorable to them. Haven't you been paying attention with these years at slashdot? You don't think that's a problem?
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You left out the Evangelicals. Apparently, Christ likes macho-men who go around thumping their chests with guns and aren't afraid to not wash their hands, being manly enough to laugh at the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
J. Falwell. Jr., even tried to keep his toy university open, gotta keep those $ rolling in or Christ would get displeased. I think they view Christ as a bingo announcers: B12 (Bingo!), give the fine lady their in back her prize....a blender, for her adherence to our money game.
Re: Who is surprised? (Score:1)
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most those evangelicals are covered with saying far right and police state goosesteppers
Re: Who is surprised? (Score:1)
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America's own Illiberals aren't letting a good crisis [slashdot.org] go to waste either...
I terms of not letting a good crisis go to waste, how does discussing nationalized healthcare compare to quarantine enforcement measures?
Like how do I draw a dotted line from healthcare like Germany to quarantine like Russia, help me out with that.
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Other nations talk of staying open to tourism and students.
Some nations are only now thinking of doing some wuflu medical work nation wide.
Nations talked of staying open to sick illegal migrants, tourists, students, workers... did not track the sick due to privacy... just to show they thad the politics to stay open.
Since wid therehen in Russia? (Score:2)
Just a few days ago there was an article about how according to the Russian authorities there wasn't any problem with covid there.
How are the North Koreans doing, anyway?
Re:Since wid therehen in Russia? (Score:4, Funny)
By decree of Dear Leader, there is no Covid in Korea. Dear Leader told Covid to stay in dirty South and Covid feared Dear Leader so much that it heeded, yes, Dear Leader commands not only heaven and earth but also every tiny virus.
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North Korea has so few tourists that it actually might very well be the case.
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So their rate of wuflu is less now and they can actually track the sick.
vs Western and EU nations that stayed open to the world longer and now have the medical issues they could have slowed.
But for free movement of people getting more political support over the health of citizens..
Russia understood what Communist China did and was doing. ie try and let wuflu spread as much as quickly due to politics.
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And also, following China, using it as an excuse to extend the powers of the police state.
Re: Since wid therehen in Russia? (Score:1)
Also in the news (Score:2)
Sales of second hand phones skyrocketed so people have one they can leave at home in quarantine.
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Sales of second hand phones skyrocketed so people have one they can leave at home in quarantine.
~ Opportunist
And why cameras are trained on the streets, as in China, and now trivial to install, but to monitor is the secret sauce of state secrets.
As I traveled through the middle east through the Arab Spring, the growth of little web cameras installed at a border official's kiosk, the cheap in appearance sort given away at the end of AOL's predominance, became standard. A photo was taken, but those nations didn't have the software to work with the photos. Yet one starts somewhere and people having the belief their
Well, of course (Score:3)
No such thing as "ex" spy (Score:1)
You can't exactly "forget" those secrets.
Once you're in, you're in.
I know this for a fact, for the KGB/FSB, CIA, BND, GCHQ and Mossad. Don't ask.
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Russia had the skills and the gov understood to start early too.
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Thank you, Comrade, for that unbiased assessment of Tsar Putin's Regime. Now we returns you to your regularly scheduled paranoia sponsored by the FSB.
Measures in Moscow may be insufficient (Score:2, Informative)
I've walked 3 km from my house today to pick up supplies from the office. The city is not closed. A few couples walked the streets not looking like they had to. Construction workers were busy at a building site erecting a new apartment block. My workplace had about 1/5 the usual number of staff present (we are not in any way a critical operation). The building entrances were open. A city bus was packed full with central-Asian migrants returning from their day at work.
I am all for a responsible behavior, but
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Test all the workers and a building site stays safe.
Few nations have a 100% stop work for all.
The idea been early testing, tracking of the sick and more testing.
Not allowing sick people into Russia to wonder around for weeks.
Re "The virus may survive just fine in the significant fraction of the population that keeps going around doing their daily tasks. "
Most nations now understand community spread due to the wee
Re: Measures in Moscow may be insufficient (Score:1)
Re: Measures in Moscow may be insufficient (Score:1)
One world totalitarian prison state will saaaaaaave us all from the Mexican Beer virus!! Hail Satan!!
Putin will never turn it off later (Score:2)
Show us your (digital) papers, Comrade!
Sucks to be you, Russian citizens. Guess you'd better get used to it, because the likelihood that Putin will ever recind that order when the pandemic is over is precisely zero.
What's next, Putin? Rebuild the Berlin Wall?
I've said before that I thought Putin wanted to build Soviet Union 2.0, and I think he, like some other world leaders, is leveraging the current crisis to check off some things on his 'to-do' list, like in this case ensuring that he can track the movements of 100% of Russian citizens, so
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What's next, Putin?
trump doing the same, and claiming he had the idea two months before it was a thing.
Resistance is futile (Score:4)
This is a lie. It allows thugs to track individuals, which is the goal.
Do not give dictators the tools they need to increase their stranglehold. Do not introduce them in a free society because of an emergency. This is the lesson from history with plenty of examples of collapsed democracies.
You need no longer imagine a boot stepping on a human face, forever.
Re: Resistance is futile (Score:1)
No no, fellow citizen - don't you understand? Only totalitarianism can save us from the Mexican Beer virus!!
Come back next month (Score:2)
And we can see if Putin was just being a dictator, or had done the right thing and saved the life of many Russians, by comparing their death toll with other “free” countries.
Re: Come back next month (Score:2)
Which one?
The official one by them,
the guessed one by us,
or the real one we have no chance in hell of ever finding out?
Re: Come back next month (Score:2)
No, I'm saying all of them won't tell us the truth anymore than the Russians will. Hence "no chance in hell".
Or are you really still believing in that game there are any "good guys"?
Wanna know the truth? Go to Russia, talk to people, and physically watch them. ... normal people. And the higher-ups are assholes. Yes, in the USA too.
It might kill any prejudices you hold dear though. Turns out wherever you go, most people are just
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Seeing as we have no valid reporting from the Russian state, your entire statement is worthless.
so no apple there any more or will apple force ins (Score:2)
so no apple there any more or will apple force install this app with no review or banning.
Re: so no apple there any more or will apple force (Score:1)
Force install, duhhh. They're a Surveillance Valley company - data rape comes naturally to them.
Aaah, just like a 100 years ago (Score:1)
I bet they were happy, to break out the old policies.
Only the yellow stars were prettier in color, and you just needed to prove innocence when passing an actual copy not all the time.
Re: Aaah, just like a 100 years ago (Score:1)
In global prison state, innocence is proof of guilt!!
Recent news are more interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
These are old news, the situation changed yesterday.
1. IT specialists criticized the application for the following reasons:
- it requires ALL possible permissions on Android
- it violates Russian laws by sending personal data to foreign servers
- it sends data unencrypted
2. The app has been decompiled and now is on Github:
https://github.com/iTaysonLab/gorkiy
3. The app was downvoted in Play Market and now it is not there.
4. Moscow government allegedly spent 180 000 000 roubles ($2.5 million) to design this
app, having "hello-world-style design" (quote from Github above)