Hey, guys! I’ve got news for you. Soon every idiot at the Federal Bailiff Service will be able to access your personal data, including your physical location at a specific moment in time. The bailiffs have already made a name for themselves by trying to catch debtors using a fake Odnoklassniki (a Russian social network) account with a blonde woman’s photo. They went after a six-year-old child for the debt of his deceased father. They illegally demolished homes in "Rechnik" (a controversial Moscow settlement). They seized parrots and turtles. And now they want to monitor debtors through their mobile phones.
The amount of the debt being collected is 100 rubles. On that basis, they demand disclosure of a person’s actual location data. This is neither a curiosity nor an isolated case. In fact, each of Russia’s three major mobile operators receives around 180,000 such requests a year.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not trying to defend chronic non-payers and debtors or attack the sacred rights of creditors. It’s just that I’ve had my own unpleasant experience dealing with bailiffs. These morons impounded my car over a debt I had paid off several months earlier. Anyone who has dealt with bailiffs knows what HELL it is to get a car released from seizure. One office day a week, one service window open from 10 to 12, a huge line to a lazy woman with a computer that is always broken and who really loves her tea. Right now they’re obsessively sending letters to my 8-year-old daughter, Dasha, saying she hasn’t paid some kind of taxes (probably on school textbooks. I’ll sort it out and write about it separately). Most importantly, why the hell does the bailiff service need information from my mobile carrier? The money in that account is payment for telecom services and no longer belongs to me. It can’t be seized to satisfy a debt. I don’t understand why every uniformed jerk is so eager to establish my “actual location.” Those who are actually authorized to conduct operational-search activities get information through the SORM system (Russia’s lawful interception system). Bailiffs have nothing to do with that kind of activity and are not supposed to have access to it. But they really want it. For now, the mobile operators are telling the bailiffs to get lost and are not giving them the information (and in fact they can’t, because doing so would violate the personal data law). And the bailiffs are bringing administrative charges against them for that. In other words, the usual mild Russian absurdity. But soon this is going to turn into full-blown absurdity. Behold! This is deputy Pligin (United Russia)
And this is his creation, which has already passed its first reading:
The bailiffs will officially get the right to obtain and use personal data. (I’m willing to bet 10 to 1 that within a month this data will be leaked and sold at any kiosk that sells discs.) I’m not even going to call on you to stage a flash mob, a protest, or anything like that. Deputy Pligin is clearly highly motivated, and United Russia votes the way it’s told, so nothing is going to change. But our voice will be heard anyway. It’s well known that every crook from United Russia—especially high-ranking ones like Pligin—gets handed a folder with “blogosphere monitoring.” They’re curious what people think about their “legislative initiatives.” And they don’t know how to use Yandex blog search themselves (all these trendy new gadgets—too hard to keep up with). Hence the folder. So, being quite sure that deputy Pligin will read this, I’ll say the following: Deputy Pligin, stop wasting time on this crap. The Federal Bailiff Service has absolutely no need for access to citizens’ personal data. They already have plenty of legal methods for dealing with debtors. Why, they even seize turtles. How much further do you want to go? I urge everyone who wants to, to say a few words to Comrade Pligin too—in the comments or in your own little blog. Let that monitoring folder get nice and thick. Update. Gazeta.ru sent over a link: http://www.gazeta.ru/interview/nm/s3370250.shtml They’ll be holding a press conference with Artur Parfenchikov, the head of that very same Federal Bailiff Service. So we have a chance to ask a question of the chief terror of turtles and parrots. Join in.