Internet Censorship
"Internet censorship is the control of information that can be viewed by the public on the Internet and can be carried out by governments, institutions, and even private organizations. Censored content can include copyrighted information, harmful or sensitive content, and more." - Poetker, 2019
“Russian authorities’ approach to the internet rests on two pillars: control and increasing isolation from the World Wide Web,” - Williamson, 2020
I found from multiple sources that especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia has been censoring more and more the internet from their citizens.
According to Human Rights Watch page the Russia has significantly expanded laws and regulations tightening control over the internet infrastructure, several online content, and the privacy of communications. If this is carried out to their full restrictive potential, the new measures will severely undermine the ability of people in Russia to exercise their human rights online, including freedom of expression and freedom of access to information.
It was also said that in 2019 there was brought into use “sovereign internet”, that required specific internet service providers to install special equipments that allows authorities to outwit the providers and automatically block unwanted content that had been banned by the government. During these times there has been violations to the privacy of mobile communications too.
According to “sovereign internet” law, this technology should prevent users from accessing any content the authorities deem unwanted by using direct commands, which the authorities have programmed, without the users or ISPs even noticing
The “sovereign internet” law also requires the creation of a national domain domain name system (DNS). Blocking can range from a single message or post to an ongoing network shutdown, including cutting Russia off from the World Wide Web or shutting down connectivity within Russia.
According to John Faulds in Techradar the major internet Restrictions in Russia began in 2012, with the introduction of a blacklist, and increased further in 2014 during the crisis in Ukraine when the aim was to silence voices critical of government policy.
My personal experience of censorship was at my previous job, when I tried to watch Netflix from my work computer the page was blocked, it was sad but I solved the problem by taking my personal computer to use too.
Facial Recognition
”Facial recognition is a way of identifying or confirming an individual’s identity using their face. Facial recognition systems can be used to identify people in photos, videos, or in real-time.” - Kapersky
Facial recognition is used widely in different services from unlocking a device to find a missing person and it’s based on biometric security.
According Thales website stated that the main problems with facial recognition are quality photographs of a person's face, forced or unaware facial recognition and alternatively stealing the numeric code and they may lead to major privacy issues.
For example there was written that in 2009, some authorized hackers successfully used photos to trick the systems used by Lenovo, Asus, and Toshiba laptops.
Another example case from Switlane webpage was that also in 2019, more than 100,000 photos and license plates were stolen from the Border Agency database. Such security breaches raise concerns over whether increasing use of face recognition is jeopardizing Americans’ privacy.
One way to prevent it is to add Liveness detection, that only opens the phone if the facial recognition notices an actual face.
Also there has been cases where facial recognition of a phone opens for identical twins, should work like that either.
Sources:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/18/russia-growing-internet-isolation-control-censorship (published 18.06.2020, accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/31/russia-new-law-expands-government-control-online (published 31.10.2019, accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.orange-business.com/en/blogs/understanding-russias-new-sovereign-internet-law (published 24.02.2020, accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.vox.com/recode/22189727/2020-pandemic-ruined-digital-privacy (published 23.12.2020, accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/inspired/liveness-detection (published 04.12.2020, accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-facial-recognition (accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.swiftlane.com/blog/facial-recognition-privacy-concerns/ published 01.10.2020, accessed 10.04.2021)
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/which-websites-and-services-are-banned-in-russia (24.08.2020, accessed 10.04.2021)
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