Russia Internet Censorship & Privacy concerns of Facial Recognition

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 

Internet Censorship (internet-censorship-16500-thumbnail-4.jpg)

“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 

Face Recognition (face-unlock-kPIF--621x414@LiveMint.jpg)

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)

Treat others the way you want to be treated.

 

”Netiquette" is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal "rules of the road" of cyberspace.”

 - Virginia Shea

The internet is dichotomous environment, it has a lot of positive vibes and reactions, but then there is also the people who doesn’t care and doesn’t know how to behave.

Like in every situation we have a some kind of patterns and rules how to behave and how not, I think it’s important to have same kind of set of rules in the online environment too.

When reading about the Netiquette by Virginia Shea I think the one of the most important point is the ”Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life”

That people would remember who they are, their powers and knowledge, the people behind the screens and that everyone has feelings.

Think Before You Post EQ9xn3cWoAEuL4y.jpg

People should think what they post online and also how and where they do it. Every platform have their own audience and people who see and are able to react to the post.

For example the post that the person writes to Facebook might get more publicity and reactions than a post in Instagram, it also depends the target audience a lot.

The way how you write and express yourself online is a critical point too when publishing something public, because everyone might not understand what did you originally mean and this can lead a huge misunderstandings, which are pretty usually in the web.

In real life people are more careful of their actions and their opinions but in web, where they are not so easily to be identified, they might forget all the manners and think that they can behave and say whatever they like. Luckily nowadays this kind of behavior has decreased a lot from what it used to be and people have learned more how to behave also online, but there will always be those who don't want to agree with these rules. If everyone would follow the rules of Netiquette and respect others also in the web we wouldn't have major problems like cyberbullying and fake news.

Also nowadays the security and the surveillance has increased in the web, for example Youtube is checking and controlling the videos and comments that are created and one good example from Finland (the only one that I'm familiar with) are the effective internet police officers (Nettipoliisi), whose work is to go around these popular social media platforms and report of any malicious action.

There is many examples in the popular social media platforms, like Facebook, Youtube and Instagram (that I personally use daily), where you are able to see the variety of people’s opinions and how they affect to others.

One hot topic currently is the use of masks and to take or not to take the vaccine for COVID-19.

My Facebook is full of different kind of posts, where people are arguing the pros and cons about the current situation. Some even call that the whole COVID-19 is based on a conspiracy theory, for example that it’s happening because of 5G or the previous actions of Bill Gates.

Often when surfing around internet and especially some places where some kind of chat or forum is involved I feel like people forget easily that there is another human being front of the screen.

I personally think that the Netiquette should be more shared and that everyone should read it at least once. Maybe in someday it’s made a compulsory piece of reading in high school or even before you are able to access internet.

Sources:

http://albion.com/netiquette/ (accessed 11.03.2021)

https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/04/covid-top-10-current-conspiracy-theories/ (published 20.04.2020,accessed 11.03.2021))