THE state’s attempts to pry into citizens’ internet activities continue apace. The latest in this regard is a strategy to have VPN service providers register themselves in the country and agree to the state monitoring their subscribers’ activities in exchange for permission to continue operating without hindrance. While this move may seem like a solution to the immediate problems being faced by a subset of VPN users, especially freelancers and some categories of remote workers, it will also create immense issues for both businesses and individual users for whom impenetrable security of their data communications is a non-negotiable requirement. These may include, for example, lawyers working with international clients or financial sector organisations managing accounts across geographical boundaries. What the architects of this foolhardy plan also do not seem to realise is that any VPN company that agrees to allow surveillance of its users automatically exposes itself to immense reputational risk in the global market, which can seriously limit its prospects for growth and expansion.

In the privacy market, any service provider that does not make painstaking efforts to protect its users and their data is quickly flagged and ‘blacklisted’. It seems that the Pakistani authorities do not understand the high value placed on digital privacy in the democratic world and believe they have the right to snoop on anyone’s internet activity without there being serious consequences. It is in this context that the proposal put forth by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for there to first be a bill of rights for the internet age seems particularly pertinent. Some boundaries need to be set on the present ruling set-up’s expansive plans to establish what would appear to be a surveillance state. The need to secure the country’s digital boundaries is understandable, but to want to monitor all internet activity seems like overkill. There must be a strict legal criterion to fulfil before the state is allowed to parse anyone’s digital activities; otherwise, the potential for abuse of such sweeping surveillance will be immense. It bears pointing out that the digital activities that so inflame the state and which it wants to shut down are a symptom of a much broader sociopolitical malaise. Attacking the symptoms will not solve the problem, and the state’s goals would be much better served if policymakers paid more attention to addressing the roots of the current sociopolitical crisis.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024