OREANDA-NEWS. Russian President Vladimir Putin called on human rights defenders to take up personal data protection issues, since they are of great concern to Russians.

The President said during a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights: "Another important topic is the advantages and risks of digitalization, electronic services, this is no longer a task for the future, but a real industry, it is gaining momentum, and there is a process of creating and new opportunities, and new interests ... Practically, such a sphere as human freedom and artificial intelligence has not been practically studied yet, so now it is professional recommendations on how to further develop digital services, preventing the risks of violation of people's rights to confidentiality, privacy, freedom of expression."

The President noted that, according to opinion polls, issues related to the protection of personal data are of great concern to people.

So, yesterday the media and Telegram channels reported a leak of data from metropolitan patients with COVID-19. According to Ashot Hovhannisyan, the founder of the DLBI leak intelligence service, more than 350 files were leaked to the network, the most recent of which dates back to June 12. This is information about tens of thousands of Muscovites: surnames, names and patronymics, addresses, telephones, passport numbers; among the files there are also private chats of hospitals and clinics.