What the occupiers have been dreaming of for four years has come true. A state messenger has been added to the list of programs that must be installed on smartphones. Since 2021, there have been several such applications - “Gosuslugi” (analogous to Ukrainian ‘Diya’ - Ed.), “Yandex. Browser,” “Mir Pay,” etc. And now, finally, the FSB's IT specialists have developed something that will allow them to track not only a citizen's relationship with the state, financial transactions, and web search history, but also private correspondence. The Max messenger is supposed to replace WhatsApp and Telegram, which have not been banned, but calls have been blocked under the pretext of combating fraud. From September 1, this application must be installed on every smartphone sold in Russia.

In Crimean schools, the transition to Max was announced on the first day of the school year. However, no one announced the timing or procedure for changing the platform. Less than a week later, the parents of all schoolchildren received a message from their class teachers: “On Monday, Sferum (the previous program for interaction between the school, students, and parents - Ed.) will cease to function. Today, you need to register with Max using the same phone number you used with Sferum.” Three days were allocated for the transition.

Crimeans are primarily upset that they were presented with a fait accompli, without being asked for their opinion on the new messenger or its technical capabilities. “I have a Chinese smartphone that I'm afraid to breathe on, lest it crash,” says the mother of a schoolchild from the Kirovsky district. “That Sferum was on and off for a month, then it refused to work. Just when we learned to live with it, they came up with a new whim. I simply don't have enough memory for Max, my phone can't handle it. What am I supposed to do now, buy a new one? Do they want to control me with my own money?” the Crimean woman says indignantly.

Schoolchildren and their parents cannot ignore the transition to the new messenger. As explained on condition of anonymity in Crimean schools, over the past few years, work via the messenger has been deeply integrated into everyday activities. "We are not allowed to correspond with parents and students in other messengers, only in Max. All organizational issues and all kinds of announcements are also there. But the main thing is that it is forbidden to use other platforms for distance learning, which happens from time to time. I can't work with children in Zoom or Discord, only in Max. We were strictly warned about this at the last teachers' council," says a teacher from Yalta.

High school students admit that they don't yet know whether to welcome the innovation or resist it. On the one hand, Max will not be blocked like other messengers, but on the other hand, everyone has heard about the new app's “superpowers” for spying. And they are in no hurry to install it.

"I don't communicate with teachers online. They'll still repeat any important information a hundred times without Max. And if I won't be in distance learning — no big deal, I won't die. But at least no one will be poking around in my phone without my permission. I don't allow my parents to do that, and here we have some nobodies who will know everything about me? What if they're perverts? No, thank you!" says an eleventh-grade student at one of Simferopol's schools.

Local experimenters admit that the high school student's fears are not unfounded. They installed the app on an empty phone and tested where it gained access without the user's permission. "It immediately started collecting data about the IP address, geolocation, and use of Yandex and Google. Of course, it didn't forget to look into the gallery. But it looked like it was just collecting statistical information for targeted advertising. However, when it took a screenshot and tried to send the image to an unknown location, any illusions about its true purpose were finally dispelled," Crimean IT specialists told CEMAAT on condition of anonymity. According to them, data transfer in the messenger is not fully encrypted, as is the case with WhatsApp, for example. This means that anyone with access to Max's servers can access this data. Moreover, the platform reserves the right to transfer this data to third parties and government agencies, as explicitly stated in the service's privacy policy.

Crimean human rights activists surveyed on this issue are categorical in their conclusions: the forced installation of the app will lead to a new wave of repression, because the FSB will be able to search for disloyal citizens simply by keywords in their correspondence, by the presence of Ukrainian phone numbers in their devices, or even simply by the Ukrainian language of the interface.

"If there is absolutely no way to avoid installing this app, it is better to buy a separate smartphone for it, which will have nothing but Max on it. Yes, you will have to spend money, but it will definitely be cheaper than the minimum consequences that will ensue if the program detects a pro-Ukrainian position, non-acceptance of Russian aggression, or increased interest in alternative sources of information," notes the human rights initiative Irade.

Human rights activists also urge Crimean residents who have installed Max to be honest with their interlocutors and warn them in advance that the gadget they are communicating from is completely controlled by the Russian occupation authorities. It is especially important to give such warnings in cases where the interlocutor is capable of making critical statements about the occupiers or even when the conversation may simply turn to Ukraine.

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