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Russia to Monitor Citizens' Movements in Real Time, Collecting 'Digital Footprints'
🇱🇹 Lithuania /Technology

Russia to Monitor Citizens' Movements in Real Time, Collecting 'Digital Footprints'

From Delfi · () Lithuanian

Translated from Lithuanian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified New plan
  • Russia plans to enhance real-time monitoring of citizens' movements through expanded data collection by transport companies.
  • The updated regulations will include actual travel data, flight details, and passenger information, stored for seven years.
  • Officials cite security concerns, including counter-terrorism and fraud prevention, as the reason for stricter surveillance.

Russia is set to implement enhanced real-time monitoring of its citizens' movements, according to a draft update of a Russian Ministry of Transport order. The new regulations will significantly expand the scope of data collected and stored by automated centralized databases for passenger and carrier personal information.

Transport companies and ticket reservation firms will be required to submit not only planned but also actual travel data. For air travel, this includes monitoring both regular and charter flights, as well as details on layovers and baggage parameters. Each journey across all transport modes will be assigned a unique code. Previously, data submission deadlines ranged from 15 to 60 minutes; the new rules aim for greater precision and minimal delays, allowing for real-time tracking.

make it even more accurate, so that information about people's movement can be tracked in real time and with minimal delays.

— Yevgeny SmirnovDescribing the government's goal with the updated data collection system.

Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov of "Pervyj otdel" noted that while the data collection system is already effective, the government seeks to "make it even more accurate." This enhanced surveillance will allow authorities to track people's movements with minimal lag. State institutions will retain travel history for seven years, with all data potentially transferable to law enforcement agencies upon request. This includes full names, dates of birth, gender, citizenship, passport details, routes, and travel dates.

The updated system will also capture "digital footprints," such as IP addresses and port numbers used during ticket purchases, along with the last four digits of payment card or account numbers. Rafael Mardanov, deputy chairman of the Duma's transport committee, justified the tightened controls by emphasizing the need to ensure the safety of passengers, transport workers, and infrastructure against terrorists and fraudsters. He stated that transport infrastructure is a prime target for terrorist attacks, making the ability to track activity in this area particularly crucial.

Transport infrastructure is one of the targets of terrorist attacks, so the ability to track activity in this area is particularly important.

— Rafael MardanovJustifying the increased surveillance measures for security reasons.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Delfi in Lithuanian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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