Column  3 min Let's talk about the protection of personal data in the MENA region!

Personal data tells a lot about people, their ideas and way of living. Therefore, they can easily be used to harm them. This is especially dangerous for vulnerable communities and people, like journalists, activists, human rights advocates, and marginalized groups. That’s why it is important to protect this data.

In order to reduce the spread of Covid-19, some countries in the MENA region have deployed technology to identify and isolate the infected people, especially through applications. Some countries like Tunisia, Qatar and Morocco developed their own digital tracing applications.

Nevertheless, in spite of the debate surrounding the efficacy of these applications in limiting the spread of Covid-19. Civil society and human rights activists suggest that without the legal protection of personal data, some of these applications can open the way for breach of human rights by authoritarian governments.

Personal data tells a lot about people, their ideas and way of living. Therefore, they can easily be used to harm them. This is especially dangerous for vulnerable communities and people, like journalists, activists, human rights advocates, and marginalized groups. That’s why it is important to protect this data.

According to Cullen International, a regulatory research firm, “all the studied MENA countries *, except in Kuwait and Jordan, have national legislation to protect personal data. Tunisia was the first country to adopt a national data protection law in the MENA region in 2004, followed by Morocco in 2009, while Qatar and Turkey adopted their law in 2016. Bahrain, Algeria, and Lebanon enacted their national data protection laws in 2018 and Egypt in 2020. United Arab Emirates adopted a federal law for personal data protection in November 2021, while Saudi Arabia in October 2021.  The recent data protection law was adopted in Oman. However, the law will only enter into force on 13 Feb. 2023, one year after its publication. In some of these countries, observers fear that the virus tracing test may transform into monitoring the population, especially in the absence of independent monitoring bodies. The lack of transparency and access to information in these countries make the process of observation related to the use of these technologies more difficult. It is almost impossible to verify whether the personal data gathered is safe, to know who can access it, and to verify whether the data will be deleted by the pre-set deadlines. Given the more often than not tense political contexts, civilians are either offered few ways of remedy, or these ways are non-existent when the authorities breach their rights of privacy.

Every year, many instances of data leak, loss and stealing in the region and its surroundings are recorded. Gulf countries in particular, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are increasingly becoming the targets of sophisticated attacks that are aimed at stealing personal data and, in some cases, exposing state secrets as age-old geopolitical rivalries play out online.

in April 2021, Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan security guard living in Doha, opened his Twitter account to find out that someone had sent him a link for a Human Rights Watch report on migrant workers. Bidali was using an anonymous account @noaharticulates to blog about his life and document the daily exploitation and abuse that the migrant workers were subjected to in World Cup 2022 building sites.

In fact, that link was a phishing link in order to disclose the real identity of @noaharticulates. Malcolm Bidali was arrested in May 2021 for being accused of “connecting with foreign forces to destabilize the country”. He was imprisoned for three weeks before his disappearance concerned NGOs. Eventually, Malcolm was convicted of “spreading misinformation”. He was forced to plead guilty and pay a fine of 25000 Riyals (6300 Euros) before being deported to Kenya on 23 August.

One year before the World Cup 2022, the preparation for which was characterized by an international concern over human rights violations against migrant workers, the Qatari government used a technical procedure to stifle the freedom of expression, in a blatant violation of personal data.

The Covid-19 health crisis and the countries’ use of technological solutions enhance the need for adapting privacy and personal data protection laws in the MENA region, most of which are outdated.

Such highly security focused countries must respect legislative frameworks for basic rights and support them through the assistance in increasing transparency and building trust with their citizens in the domains where personal data are particularly important: cybercrimes, digital identity, and the flow of data across borders.

Next time, we’ll inform you about some recommendations to protect your personal data online, as there are a few essential steps to serve this purpose.