UN agency: Unified Biometric System will help Russia achieve Sustainable Development Goals
UN agency: Unified Biometric System will help Russia achieve Sustainable Development Goals
UBS will "promote well-being for all" and "reduce inequality"
All responsible people understand by now that Russia’s Unified Biometric System (UBS) was specifically created with the goal of protecting the privacy and dignity of ordinary Russians.
But maybe this hugely unpopular and perfidious initiative has even more noble goals that Russian state media and other fearless truth-tellers can “report” on? Yes of course.
Russia’s UBS has received much-deserved accolades from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies.
Let’s examine what this friendly UN agency says about UBS:
The Unified Biometric System (UBS) is a national digital platform that allows a remote identification of a person by his/her biometric parameters.
The biometric system will be used in the entire territory of the Russian Federation and will enable citizens living in hard-to-reach areas, as well as people with disabilities to use digital services. […]
The use of the System will fundamentally improve interaction between a person, business and the state. […]
At the initial stage the Unified Biometric System will serve banks and financial organizations, whereafter it will be used in healthcare (telemedicine), distance education, e-commerce, retailing, for receipt of state and municipal services, etc.
Full-scale implementation of the Biometric System will make it possible to make a critical infrastructure for development of the country’s digital economy.
Telemedicine! Distance “education”! A “digital economy” in which the cattle-tagged client—sorry, cherished citizen—has smooth interactions with “business and the state.” Herman Gref approves.
But the UN’s love sonnet for UBS doesn’t stop there. ITU included a helpful list showing how UBS will aid Russia’s efforts to achieve various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Look at how sustainable UBS is:
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) RELATED TO THIS PROJECT
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
just substitute “sustainable” with “controllable”
"will enable citizens living in hard-to-reach areas, as well as people with disabilities to use digital services."
The same hard-to-reach areas where people have no indoor plumbing, no sewage lines and have to use sewage pits? I'm sure they will be thrilled at the prospect of telemedicine and distance education.
Like here in Ukraine, when my apartment gets cold and dark because of a power outage, I take great comfort in the fact that I can videochat with Australia if I want.