Have you ever wondered?
Have you ever felt like someone is watching you? Someone is reading everything you type? Someone is listening to all the calls you make? Is anyone there? Someone can see through your webcam, and hear your words through the various devices that litter your house? What did you do? Did you turn everything off, cut yourself from the global network that we are so accustomed to? Or did you just continue with your day, like the rest of us, like a mouse squeaking through your day, through your life.
More likely than not, you chose the latter. You continue life, you continue your routine, you do your work, and you don’t even gander a second thought at your lack of privacy. You think to yourself, do I really care if some random government agent somewhere out there reads my text at 2 in the morning to go get some McDonalds? Do they really not have something better to do, to catch some mastermind criminal out there, like in a sci fi movie?
Or maybe you do care, maybe you do value your personal space, the ability to be truly private, the ability to protect what is yours, to hide what you personally chose to hide, to be able to be free to choose what you share and what you do not share. Perhaps that lack of privacy troubles you, it lingers in the back of your mind causing that ever so slight hint of paranoia over the fact that you cannot be your true self because, SOMEONE IS WATCHING!
Sooooo, who’s watching?
If you’re someone like me who has grown up in the Middle East, you’re used to hearing the fact that life is monitored. From a physical level where the country is littered with hundreds of thousands of cameras in every little nook and cranny, all the way down to your own digital extensions betraying you through their microphones and cameras. The government sees and hears everything. That’s what you learn growing up, that’s what you get used to, that’s what you’ve accepted as you chose to stay here.
ISP, Internet service providers in the UAE are either fully or partially owned by the state (Freedom House, 2020). This means that the state authorities have full access and control over the data being transmitted through cellular devices. The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) has the power to make executive decisions on what can and will be monitored. And this data, being state owned, is readily available for the state to view at their discretion. This is a general disregard to personal privacy and the right to own your data.
But why???
When do you reach a point where you consider it okay to share your personal data? What would make it worth it? To protect someone? To stop a crime? To limit access to external parties that could potentially cause harm to the society? These are all reasons that the state can use to harness your data for the safety of the society, or so they claim. Your safety, your family’s safety and the safety of the people around you are used as a crutch to observe and monitor your day-to-day social media usage and activities. The centralized government, with access to your social life, claims to use the data for protection, for saving the society from harm and for creating a peaceful and safe environment for its people.
But does it work? Well according to the Global peace index, the UAE is one of the safest places to live in the world. They have societal safety and security score of 1.71 which ranks them number 25# on the global scale in terms of having a secure and safe society (Safest countries in the world 2023, 2023). This is a measure of harmony in the country, which is quite clear and relatable when you have lived here for a while. The country is extremely safe and void of major crimes as part of the daily lifestyle. People are able to roam late at night and walk around without fear of being looted or hurt. One of the main aspects of this is the fact that the majority of the country is monitored, and crime rarely ever goes unpunished.
Tell me what’s banned!
The country has strong control over what can be published and what content can be browsed on the internet. There is continuous monitoring of websites and other forms of data transfer that are blocked. In 2010, post the assassination of one of the Hamas leaders in Dubai, BBM (Blackberry messenger) was banned in the country. During that time, BBM was the heart of conversation in society and could be seen in the hands of everyone, ranging from school children to business professionals (Wray, 2010). This came as quite a shock to society, and really led to an understanding of how much control the state has over what can and cannot be allowed based on data sharing policy. BBM refused to share their encrypted messages, and they were forced to leave the market.
Another such example is the ban of VoIP software as a whole. WhatsApp calling, Facebook calling, Instagram calls, Apple Facetime and etc. are all banned in the country. This is particularly because the encryptions that these VoIP software use limit the capability of the state to monitor and track the said calls. This has been a norm for the region with bans on Skype, TeamSpeak, Discord and any other VoIP software. In turn, the government does provide alternate software such as BOTIM which can be availed through a subscription program from ISP. That being said, in late 2019 one such app (ToTok) was reported to be a spy app recording all conversations and messages from the users (Freedom House, 2020).
So, what do we do?
Well, in short, we do nothing. The country is occupied by over 9 million people (World Population Index, 2023). These people are aware of the circumstances, and nearly 80% of them are expats that are in the country to work and enjoy the safe and secure life that is being offered. Each region and country has their own way to function, their own society and culture, and the beauty of globalization is our ability and our access to move to any part of the world that suits us.
Alternately, the state has created a unique and secure environment for its citizens. The society is functioning as a monarchy, where there is no intervention of the common person on a political level. The state ensures the safety and security of its people, although sometimes through questionable means. The society as a whole is protected and the natives in particular are very satisfied with the regime. This is evident in the extravagant growth the country has taken over the past 50 years, and the diverse society it has created for hundreds of nationalities that come to live and work here despite the natural lack of privacy.
References
United Arab Emirates: Freedom on the net 2020 country report. Freedom House. (n.d.). https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-arab-emirates/freedom-net/2020 (Accessed 13 October 2023)
Safest countries in the world 2023 (2023) Wisevoter. Available at: https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-the-world/#united-arab-emirates (Accessed: 13 October 2023).
Wray, R. (2010) UAE blackberry ban set to spread throughout Gulf States, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/aug/02/blackberry-ban-uae-gulf-states (Accessed: 13 October 2023).
(No date) United Arab Emirates Population 2023 (live). Available at: https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/united-arab-emirates-population (Accessed: 13 October 2023).