Ukraine plans to work with Apple on post-war national census

If as so many pray it does, the war in Ukraine ends the government there has reprised its plans to work with Apple on the next national census.

A delayed national project

The census was originally intended to take place in 2023. Apple and Ukraine President Zelensky met in 2021 to agree a memorandum of understanding for the project. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development, Digital Transformation Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov has now promised the agreement remains.

“After our victory, it will be necessary to accurately conduct a population census,” he said.

“But, we have completely rethought the approach to this. We understand that a lot of information can be obtained thanks to verification in the registers, so as not to bother our citizens and not to ask about something that can already be seen thanks to the depersonalized synchronization of certain registers.”

“It will be one of the most advanced and innovative censuses in the world,” he promised.

Tech will be a focus for the post-war recovery

The minister also said that the tech industry in the Ukraine will experience a post-war renaissance, which will no doubt please my many friends there. Many of these have served in their military, and all of them seem involved in some way in the national effort to rebuff Russia’s invasion.

Радий зустрітися з @tim_cook, який керує компанією, що надихає своїм прикладом усіх прихильників цифровізації у світі. 🇺🇦 також уже є світовим IT-хабом. Ми зацікавлені у розширенні присутності @Apple в Україні та реалізації нових амбітних спільних проектів. pic.twitter.com/d11rU47IRb

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 2, 2021

Apple has previously committed support to Ukraine in many ways, including raising digital literacy levels among citizens and working with teachers who use iOS.

The company will also work with Ukraine to build paperless state services for citizens and digital technologies for healthcare, a press release announced when the deal was first agreed.

“We are grateful to Apple for constant cooperation with our ministry and the opportunity to implement the world’s best solutions to achieve our most important goal – turning the state into a convenient and efficient service that you want to trust,” said Minister Fedorov at that time.

Apple has the experience of providing the platform for the US census in 2020. Canvassers then used iPhones to log the information, while device security for those used in the census was hardened in multiple ways.

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