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80% of Russians Will Have State-Gathered 'Digital Profiles' by 2025, Official Says

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Four in five Russians will reportedly get a digital profile that will document personal successes and failures in less than a decade under the government’s comprehensive plans to digitize the economy.

The government introduced a $53-billion Digital Economy Program last year to help roll out digital technologies nationwide by 2024, the last year of Vladimir Putin’s presidential term. One of its focus areas includes a so-called “personal development trajectory” that will track a student’s academic successes and failures and be passed on to their employers.

“Every achievement in a person’s life – the misses, mistakes, big projects – will be recorded,” said the head of IT at Russia’s Pension Fund, Dmitry Kuznetsov.

Kuznetsov estimated that four out of five Russians will have a digitized profile by 2025, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday from a digitization conference.

The Russian government is expected to finalize the digital economy project by Oct. 1 this year. The Medialeaks.ru website reports that academic institutions will adopt the program’s education roadmap, which includes the digital profiles spelled out by Kuznetsov, by late 2020.

Observers note that the plan for a “personal development trajectory” resembles China’s Social Credit System, which rates the trustworthiness of citizens based on an individual score determined by credit history, personal characteristics, behavior and interpersonal relationships. Individuals with low scores are punished with slower internet speeds and travel restrictions.

Reuters contributed reporting to this article.

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