Jun 23, 2023 21:00:00

What is the Ukrainian President Zelensky's app 'Diia' that also has a Russian military reporting function and a World Cup streaming function?

Volodymyr Zelensky , who became the 6th President of Ukraine in May 2019, campaigned during the presidential election with the pledge to 'put the nation in a smartphone.' It is reported that the application ' Diia ' created based on that pledge has additional functions such as the ability to receive administrative services on smartphones and the ability to report the movement of Russian troops in a state of war. .

Ukrainians use the same app to file taxes and track Russian troops
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/26/ukraine-diia-app-fedorov-russian-troops

After taking office, President Zelensky instructed First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Reform

Mikhail Fedorov to ``develop the most convenient governance system in the world''. In response to this, Mr. Fedorov and others developed with the aim of `` a mobile application and web portal that aggregates all services provided by the state to citizens and companies in one place ''.

As a result of the development by Fedorov et al., ``Diia'' was released in February 2020. A digital ID will be issued to each citizen who downloads Diia, and not only can you present your driver's license etc. It saves you the trouble of getting government services.

According to Fedorov, more than 19 million Ukrainians are using Diia as of May 2023, and it has been downloaded to about 70% of smartphones in Ukraine. New features are being added to Diia on a regular basis and every ministry has a “Chief Digital Transformation Officer” to drive the process of adding new features.

Additional features added to Diia since its release include

claiming for unemployment services following the Russian invasion and claiming damage to homes damaged during the attack. ``About 1 million war bonds have been purchased using this app,'' Fedoroff reports.

In addition, with the 'e-Enemy' function installed in Diia, it is possible for citizens to report the movement of the Russian army invading and videos via the app. According to Fedorov, the Ukrainian army conducts appropriate military actions based on reports and videos sent by citizens, images from satellites and other sources of information. And when millions of Ukrainians were unable to watch the FIFA World Cup final in December 2022 due to power outages, Diia was used to quickly stream the match. Done. More than 1 million Ukrainians are believed to have watched the streaming on Diia.

Regarding privacy issues, including government surveillance and external cyberattacks, Fedoroff reported that ``data is stored in separate registries, not in the app itself.'' Therefore, even if a cyber attack is carried out, it is said that user data is unlikely to be compromised. In addition, Diia is equipped with a biometric authentication function including face authentication, and it can not cause data without permission from the user.

According to Fedorov, millions of tech-savvy young people are believed to have left Ukraine following the Russian military invasion. Mr. Fedorov said, 'We are planning to create an environment where they want to come back after leaving Ukraine,' providing a free training environment for IT workers and going to the technology center We appealed that we are doing preferential tax treatment for