On June 4, during a meeting with government officials, Vladimir Putin stated that all public services must be moved to the national messenger app called Max. According to Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev, the multiplatform system is already operational.
[…]
The Max app — a Russian equivalent of China’s WeChat — was unveiled by the tech giant VK in late March. At present, it features a messenger, a chatbot builder, a payment system, and mini-apps. On June 5, VTB’s digital bank launched on the platform.
To register, a Belarusian or Russian SIM card is required — which, as The Insider noted, foreigners can no longer obtain without submitting biometric data.
As stated in the Max app’s privacy policy, the platform will collect data on:
- user devices
- IP address
- operating system
- browser
- location
- internet provider
- contacts from the address book
- all user activity within the service
- information obtained through the camera or microphone, if the user grants the app access (most users will, for example, in order to record voice messages)
Other messaging apps collect such data as well, but there’s a catch. The Max app’s privacy policy explicitly states that it may share this data with the “company’s partners” as well as with “any government or local authority.”
[…]
Surprise surprise
I can very well imagine them actually gathering all that data, but this list of permissions is something a lot of apps have nowadays. Even very trivial apps. And 99% of people don’t care.
Of course it’s another matter if you immediately have the kgb in front of your door, compared to just getting your data collected and sold, but still
I wonder from where he got the idea
Definitely China. You go there, and you install the Baidu Maps app, because Google Maps does not work there. But it’s not just maps, it also includes chat, banking, public transport tickets, and voice calls, all in a single app. Many street vendors don’t even have cash, they accept Baidu payments through the app. And it’s as big-brother as it gets, it immediately asks for every permission and refuses to work otherwise.
The first one I thought of was google, given their ethnically questionable ways of obtaining someones data and selling it to anyone willing to pay
At least there are separate apps, and you don’t have to register your bank card with them to use maps, you don’t even need to enable GPS.
In addition to @pelya@lemmy.world’s comments, you don’t have to be afraid that the police knocks on your door because you liked the ‘wrong’ post, or said something the government doesn’t like. That’s a major difference.
[Edit typo.]
you don’t have to be afraid that the police knocks on your door because you liked the ‘wrong’ post, or said something the government doesn’t like.
So basically just an app? Don’t see anything different than it being Russian when compared to its western counterparts
another chudmuffin who exists only to convince other people they are overreacting…
