Passports in Russia decided to replace QR codes

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Red-skinned quartina

The pandemic has made adjustments to the concept of replacing paper passports with electronic media, which has been nurtured by the Russian authorities since 2013. Now we are talking not only about plastic cards, but also about QR codes that citizens will present to confirm their identity, and a mobile application with a more or less human name “My Passport” has turned into a “Mobile Identifier”. The head of the Ministry of Digital Science Maksut Shadayev said that the decision to replace paper carriers would be made before the end of the year. But they will not forcibly take away the “purple books” from anyone.

The possibility of replacing a civil passport with an electronic analogue has been discussed for several years – the government approved the first concept in the fall of 2013. Then the project was supervised by the Federal Migration Service, which proposed to carry out the transition in 2015–2019. But then the FMS was liquidated, and the authorities were not up to it; again the idea of ​​issuing electronic identity cards instead of paper ones surfaced in the digital economy national program. In the summer of 2019, then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the transition could begin in Moscow in the summer of 2020 and be completed across the country by the end of 2024. At that time, the Russians were planning to issue a plastic card with a photograph of the owner, his personal data (the possibility of linking TIN, SNILS, driver’s and pension certificates was discussed) and an electronic signature. For those who wish, a mobile application “My Passport” was developed, which was supposed to have the same legal force as the card itself. It was assumed that the electronic document, unlike the usual one, would need to be updated every ten years to keep pace with technological progress.

A change in cabinet in January 2020 buried this concept, but not the idea itself. In the fall, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the preparation of a pilot project to launch electronic passports in Moscow. And in January 2021, the issue was considered at a meeting with Vladimir Putin. As a result, the president ordered “to ensure, with the participation of the FSB of Russia, an experiment on the use (including the use of mobile applications) of electronic duplicates of documents issued by state bodies.” The experiment, according to the published list of instructions, should begin before December 1, 2021, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers Mikhail Mishustin is personally responsible for the implementation.

It is worth noting that the replacement of a paper medium with an electronic one is not new – almost all residents of Europe have such IDs. But there it is just a plastic card with a chip on which the necessary information is recorded.

Our officials decided to go further and, using the experience gained during the pandemic, to issue citizens not only cards, but also QR codes – for this, instead of the application “My Passport”, a “Mobile Citizen Identifier” is being developed. With its help, the authorities promise, it will be possible to confirm your identity when receiving services, contacting government agencies, as well as when buying air tickets, registering real estate transactions, etc. According to Shadayev, the technology worked out in the framework of digital passes “will make it possible in 9 out of 10 cases not to get an ordinary document.” And this is very convenient.

Photo: oblgazeta.ru.





“From the point of view of replacing a paper passport, there is a need to change it to a more convenient digital format – a smart card. We will make this decision by the end of the year. A smart card can be put in a wallet, it does not deteriorate, when visiting the MFC, you can attach a digital passport to the reader, and all the data will be loaded, “the head of the Ministry of Digital Industry said on Wednesday, August 18. He added that in addition to the card, “the task is to give the opportunity to have another copy of the digital passport, which can be shown on the phone in the form of a QR code.”

The key issue in the transition to digital is the protection of personal data. How exactly it will be carried out in the event of loss, theft or hacking of a mobile device is not explained in detail. However, as part of the experiment, Putin separately instructed to determine “the necessary security measures, including measures to protect citizens from the unlawful use of electronic duplicate documents.” Human rights activists, in turn, warn that a phone with a “Mobile ID” is becoming a universal means of monitoring citizens, allowing every minute to track all actions and the trajectory of the owner’s movement.

However, officials assure that there will be no obligation to switch to electronic passports. “It was decided not to make this (replacing a paper passport with a smart card) mandatory. Those people who are ready to exchange a paper passport for a smart card, for a digital copy of a passport in a smartphone, this will be their decision. There is an agreed position that it will not be mandatory, ”Shadayev emphasized.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28606 dated August 19, 2021

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Red-skinned quartina

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