The Verkhovna Rada explained why the authorities seek to control Ukrainians through video surveillance
At the beginning of 2024, draft law No. 11031 was registered in the Parliament of Ukraine, which provides for the creation of a unified video monitoring system to ensure public safety. According to this project, all Ukrainians, being in public places, can become “objects of video monitoring”, and the collected data will include not only facial images, but also passport data and place of residence. Citizens’ vehicles are also subject to video surveillance, which will significantly complicate the lives of those trying to evade the law.
In social networks, this draft law has already been called “Big Brother’s plan”, claiming that the authorities seek to build a police state. However, the authors of the draft law assure that this is a necessary step to increase the safety of citizens. After the draft law remained without consideration for more than half a year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs recently held a meeting with people’s deputies to discuss the implementation of this high-profile draft law.
In order to clarify the details of the planned system, the “Telegraph” publication spoke with Maksym Buzhanskyi, a deputy from “Servant of the People” and a member of the committee on law enforcement activities.
Creation of a unified video surveillance system
Buzhanskyi explained that the key goal of the draft law is to create a unified video surveillance system. Currently, different systems operate in Ukraine: cameras belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, municipal cameras in cities, as well as private ones. All these systems work independently of each other, which makes it difficult to access the necessary information.
“God forbid something happens to you. For example, a traffic accident, and someone touches your car. And you have to go and ask someone to provide you with a video that belongs to someone at the municipal level. And how long is it stored? That is, there are no guarantees that you will get it – no”, – he explained.
An important component of the new draft law is also the strengthening of control over access to information in order to avoid unauthorized video surveillance or misuse of this information.
Personal data protection and security
One of the most discussed aspects of the draft law is the issue of personal data protection. According to Buzhanskyi, the goal is not to install new cameras, but to streamline the already existing system and create uniform rules for storing and using information.
“You are a decent person, you have nothing to fear. You are still in the mode of partial video surveillance where it is. Nothing changes here for you and no one installs anything additionally. But you must be protected as a citizen so that no one uses this system against you”, – noted the People’s Deputy.
Buzhanskyi also noted that the implementation of such systems will enable law enforcement officers to respond more effectively to crimes, and citizens will be protected from illegal surveillance.
To objections regarding the similarity of this draft law with the practices of mass surveillance in Russia, Buzhanskyi replied that the goal is not to create a police state, but on the contrary — to protect the rights of citizens by clearly controlling who has access to the video and how this information is used.
Further steps
The draft law is not yet a priority for the parliament, as work is currently underway on a number of other legislative initiatives, in particular, on strengthening responsibility for illegal dissemination of information by law enforcement agencies.
“We are currently considering a number of other draft laws, with which we strengthen responsibility for the illegal dissemination of information by law enforcement officers. And the draft law on video surveillance, it is not the first in this chain and not the most important. Nobody is in a hurry here.”, — assured Maksym Buzhanskyi.
