Artur Parfenchikov, the Head of Karelia, ordered to make an online map of all detected cases of coronavirus which includes street names and house numbers where infected people live. He said this on his page on vk.com. According to the Head of the Republic, this information should help to avoid sources of infection and keep visits to "dangerous zones" to a minimum as much as possible.
Lawyers questioned by 7x7 gave mixed judgments of Parfenchikov's initiative. According to Nikolai Fleganov, a member of the Commission for the Protection of Professional Rights of Lawyers, the infection map itself "cannot be considered illegal if it does not contain personal data of sick citizens and does not disclose other secrets protected by law." He noted that "citizens also had the right to get right information about ecology, environment, and epidemiological situation."
— On the other hand, there has already been a negative experience in Russia when one locality’s residents began to bully a family with a child who had got sick with coronavirus. I am sure that before publishing any data, it needs to worry about the reaction that might be caused in society, — the expert said.
Media lawyer Yelena Paltseva also believes that the online map of infections will not contradict the law on personal data: the street name and house number will not help identify an infected citizen. However, Paltseva doubts that the project will actually be of benefit for the residents of Karelia.
- Administrative and military thinking and the desire to oblige the civilian population to live under the laws of restrictions for such a long time can have the opposite effect — a wave of violence, both physical and psychological, — and also form a disregard for legal acts (and the people who ordain them) as a regulator of public relations. Legal nihilism is no less dangerous than coronavirus, because there will never be a vaccine for it, — she said.
There is also a lot of discontent and distrust towards the new initiative expressed in the comments to the post about creating the online map on the webpage of the Head of Karelia.
As of April 27, according to official data, there are 62 people with diagnosed coronaviral infection (+6 new cases per day) in Karelia. There were no fatalities, and seven patients have recovered.
