MOSCOW (Realist English). Quite recently, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent a letter to the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin regarding the consideration of draft law No. 211535-8 “On the State Information System “Unified Personal Data Information System that provides processing, including collection and storage of biometric personal data, their verification and transmission of information on the degree of their compliance with the provided biometric personal data of the individual”.
The First Hierarch greeted Volodin with wishes of good health and God’s help in the responsible labors. Referring to the document adopted by the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 4, 2013 on the stance of the Church with the development of technologies for recording and processing personal data, His Holiness the Patriarch stressed that the Church welcomes technologies that help people in life. However, he noted the importance of remembering the risks of introducing such technologies.
Religious scholar, editor-in—chief of the Religion Department of Realist News Agency Sevak Mirabyan believes that “the stance of the ROC on this issue reflects one of the key and fundamental foundations of the Christian understanding of man – this is God-given freedom”:
“Man created by God has an incredible privilege — the choice between freedom and submission, good and evil, chaos and order.
“A man created by God has an incredible privilege – the choice between freedom and submission, good and evil, chaos and order.”
The world of digital technologies, of course, gives a person huge opportunities for self-realization, but it makes him extremely vulnerable, narrowing personal space and social freedom. It embeds his system, regulates and reduces his individuality, bringing him under certain “trends”, which, at times, are frankly inhumane.”
“In a word, personal data and the entire conglomerate of modern digitalization is a double—edged sword, and you need to use it very carefully, remembering the words from the Holy Scriptures that the whole world is not worth a single human soul (Mt. 16:26),” Mirabyan explained.
