Algorithmic totalitarianism and the universal surveillance state are not merely attributes of the Chinese regime, which Western regimes have zealously attempted to copy (and have succeeded to some extent) behind the smokescreen called “covid 19.”
At the end of last year, using the exact same pretext, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the creation of a composite database that would include fingerprints, facial recognition, and genetic information. Both for Russian citizens and foreigners entering the territory.
All this is done (what else?) for the common good: public order and security. But these treasure troves of personal data will be useless if the overwhelming majority of those who have been datafied are law-abiding. Therefore, somehow they must “leak” for other uses. Commercial, economic… The quotation marks are because these “leaks” (when and if they are acknowledged) will always be presented as accidents and products of hacking; while the truth is that they constitute the organic exploitation of the accumulated data.
A persistent Russian citizen last year filed a complaint against the mayor of Moscow, who has installed facial recognition cameras on the streets, after finding and purchasing her personal data that had been collected this way on the dark web for 16,000 rubles (210 dollars).
Oops!!! Sorry!… We missed it….