How is Corona facilitating repression in the Arab world?

French newspaper Liberation said authoritarian Arab regimes used the outbreak to increase surveillance and control of the population, taking advantage of drones, smart apps and emergency laws.

As part of its cooperation with the organization< Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism >> (ARIJ), Liberation publishes surveys and field reports conducted by young Arab journalists on the Covid-19 epidemic in various countries, and will publish an article on its website every Saturday in December.

This first poll, carried out by Lebanese journalist Manal Nahas, shows how the epidemic served as a pretext for authoritarian Arab governments to strengthen surveillance and increase control and repression of citizens.

Although the use of Chinese-made drones to detect cases of Covid-19 among the population in Europe and India has aroused legitimate mistrust, Arab countries have not paid attention to the risks of China recovering personal data. of their citizens, they instead started before the outbreak of the epidemic using digital surveillance techniques. On a large scale since the Arab Spring in 2011, according to a study by the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy on surveillance policies in the Middle East and North Africa.

Data analysis

The report points out that Arab authorities have used the services of European and Israeli companies, such as Britain’s Gamma and the Italian hacking team, and the Israeli company “NSO”, to spy on opponents by listening to and controlling personal data, and close cooperation has developed between Arab countries and China in the drone market.

Faced with the Covid-19 crisis, technical tools have experienced a remarkable boom in the Arab world thanks in part to local ingenuity, and applications on smartphones or modifications to drones have multiplied, where data is exploited in many countries in the name of health surveillance.

In order to impose curfews and measure the temperature of drivers while driving or identify cases of contact, innovative monitoring devices have been put in place at the initiative of government agencies and private start-ups. , and drone surveillance technologies have been used in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Sudan, according to the journalist’s report.

Threat to individual liberty

Human rights organizations – including Amnesty International – have highlighted “extreme hostility” towards the surveillance applications used in Kuwait and Bahrain in particular, because these benevolent, sometimes mandatory, tools collect all information on the movements of human beings. citizens in their daily lives, in particular. It goes far beyond what could be considered a “health necessity”.

While the Tunisian application “Protect” the contacts of the carrier of the virus without revealing his identity, the Kuwaiti application “Shilunak” or “Bahrain conscious company” allows to locate the carrier and identify those of his company thanks to the cell phone or identity card, then transfer the data These applications collected by the Gulf countries on a central database, which means – according to the journalist – a clear threat to individual freedom with fear of using information for security purposes, and perhaps also for commercial or entertainment purposes.

In Bahrain, where the government guarantees that the information collected by the app is used only by health authorities, some data was used as part of a TV show that distributes prizes to those who respect quarantine, and several Gulf countries have imposed electronic bracelets imported from South Korea or China to monitor those who have proven themselves. They were injured during quarantine.

What happens to the data?

Although downloading COVID-19 tracking apps is theoretically “completely voluntary” in the words of the Tunisian Ministry of Health, all of these apps – according to the report – are of concern, as those that use Bluetooth in Lebanon, Egypt and United Arab Emirates in particular, require geolocation as well as access. To recordings from cameras and microphones on the smartphone, which collects a large amount of data stored in the phone.

In some cases, the case is more serious, notably in the “Egypt Health” application, which has undergone changes allowing anyone to identify suspected cases by simply pressing the “Report” button, so that they can mention the name of the “suspect” and his national number registered with the Ministry of the Interior, And answer the questions on the risks of infection.

Finally, the report asks questions about the fate of these applications and the data collected, after the end of the epidemic. Will it be exploited for commercial or even secure purposes? Because even if it is not transferred to government agencies, it can be stored by internet giants like Apple or Google ?, Especially since the medical authorities in Arab countries have not demanded deletion personal data after the end of the epidemic.

Some governments have taken steps to comply with the European Data Protection Act 2018, but this mainly applies to e-commerce and secure payment, as is the case in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, but the legislation is still not completely sufficient to protect data collected for health reasons.