Kazakhstan’s Big Brother

Читайте этот материал на русском. When a prosecutor in Almaty requested the personal data of drivers from the Yandex ride-hailing app in February, the Kazakhstani branch of the Russian tech giant automatically complied.Investigators were seeking to find out the real income of individuals suspected of underreporting their earnings to avoid alimony payments, and the so-called “everything” company duly provided all the requested information.Was this not an infringement of privacy? According to the Almaty Economic Court and the Department of Court Administration in Astana, the request complied with existing laws governing the protection of personal data, commercial, banking, and other confidential data.One month earlier, the Almaty City Prosecutor’s Office and Yandex Qazaqstan had signed a memorandum “On Information Exchange Regarding the Execution of Socially Significant Payments and the Fulfillment of Alimony Obligations,” paving the way for the later request.The arrangement is one example of how platforms, banking apps, surveillance cameras, and other digital services are increasingly being used to monitor residents in Kazakhstan, with the ostensible goal of crime, fraud, and violence.The application of what amounts to near-universal surveillance in this way, according to experts interviewed by Vlast, could be a “double-edged sword.”