I find this rather frightening, and fear something similar coming to our dictatorship-in-training-wheels. This is one of the reasons you should loudly shun any business that goes cashless. payment for goods & services is one of the prime vectors for forcing dystopian shit like this on the people. Research shows tens of millions of Russian people are being forced to use the 'super app' that amounts to ‘backdoor’ on their device https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/18/russian-super-app-max-spy-citizens Max is Russia’s version of a “super-app,” combining an ecosystem of services into a single platform. It is a container for a number of “mini-apps” that now facilitate everyday life in Russia – banking apps, a messaging service that aims to replace Telegram, and apps for essential government services. Max is “a blueprint any government can follow” towards digital authoritarianism, said Ensafi. It represents the cutting edge of what governments such as Iran, Kazakhstan and India may soon try to achieve. It can access all the information stored in these mini-apps, their messages and payments. It can impersonate its users without them knowing. It can even inject code into mini-apps – which would mean, said Ensafi, that the Russian government could use Max to launch cyberattacks. “The school director called us in last March and told us directly: from now on, everything is on Max. That included chats with parents, sending out homework and other school communication,” the teacher said. “There isn’t really an option to say no, so in the end you just use the app.” Daniil, a university student in St Petersburg, said he reluctantly downloaded Max shortly before the start of the academic year after being told students would be denied access to university buildings or dormitories without a QR code generated through the app.