Russia Planning National Biometric Database For Banking Next Year, Expanding Worldwide Trend

Saturday, December 30, 2017
By Paul Martin

By Aaron Kesel
ActivistPost.com
DECEMBER 30, 2017

Russia is to start a biometric database for financial services starting next summer, the Central Bank of Russia said in a statement.

The system, although not mandatory, will extend access to banking by letting customers open accounts without having to visit a banking branch. This is all in an effort to “digitize” financial services. The regulator noted that data would only be stored with a person’s consent.

However, what the biometric database will include is worrying to say the least.

The biometric database will incorporate images of faces, voice samples and, eventually, irises and fingerprints.

With constant hacks against corporations including credit agency Equifax here in the U.S., which was threatened in September to pay in Bitcoin or else, putting all of someone’s physical identification in one place is a nightmarish scenario. Especially with the rise of using biometric data (fingerprints and facial recognition) to unlock cell phones.

Imagine someone hacks your bank biometric information – they now have your full identity and are free to access your phone and other services that use your fingerprint and face as if they were you. This enables blackmailing with access to all your private information, text, and pictures.

The biometric effort is being backed by Russian state-owned Rostelecom, and Sberbank PJSC who has been selected to run the database, Bloomberg reported.

Last month, PJSC acquired a 25% stake in a company called VisionLabs as a first step toward building a biometric platform to identify people through face, voice and retina recognition technologies.

Rostelecom’s board chairman is Sergei Ivanov, a former KGB agent who was President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff until last year and is currently among those sanctioned by the U.S. for Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

The law will take effect six months after it’s passed. The database could also be expanded for use by microfinance organizations and government services, the central bank added.

Russia isn’t the only country planning to implement a biometric database. China has also turned its nation into George Orwell’s nightmare.

China’s Ministry of Public Security, which oversees the database, has amassed biometric information for more than 40 million people it was reported in 2015. The Communist country has the world’s biggest database of DNA information according to a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) just this year. For comparison, in the US, the FBI’s national DNA index has 12.7 million offender profiles.

“Mass DNA collection by the powerful Chinese police absent effective privacy protections or an independent judicial system is a perfect storm for abuses,” Sophie Richardson, China director at HRW said. “China is moving its Orwellian system to the genetic level.”

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