DaniMouse on duty: Let’s look at the Middle East!
Hi! Howdy! Hello! I am DaniMouse, one of the mice behind the scenes at Anonymouse. I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you a bit more on what I will be discussing. I have been raised in the Middle East but have had the luxury of living across the globe having squeaked on 4 different continents and several countries globally. Because I’ve had the chance to witness so many different mice from so many different cultures, I have decided to discuss datafication in my home country in the Middle East as a comparison to the globe. This will be a challenging conversation where we will question society’s natural beliefs.
To give you some background, I live in a Monarchical state. The country has been ruled by families for 3 generations. The country is relatively small and young, but progressed quite rapidly to be one of the busiest and most modern societies globally. We have the world’s tallest building, the world’s largest mall, the world’s largest man-made island and the list goes on and on. Yes, you guessed it right, I speak of sunny United Arab Emirates. With our warm climate, and our unending wealth, we have quite a unique and adventurous environment for a young mouse.
Being a monarchical state, datafication and privacy are not as valued as they are in other societies. While in the western part of the world, a lot of your information such as your online conversations and your digital footprint are kept private, in my lands these are not. The government has continuous access to basic communications such as WhatsApp messages, Facebook messages, Snapchats, Instagrams and other means of communications. Privacy is only relative. Your life is watched, you are watched, and no one is exempt from this. But is this really such a bad thing if it is not shared with private corporations?
I, DaniMouse, as one of the sworn Anonymouse, vow to get to the bottom of this and to help you and I understand the implications of such lack of privacy, both good and bad.