The increased digital access in human lives has facilitated work and appended additional spaces to the existing ones. Knowledge is no longer inaccessible or confined to books; rather, it has been taken to virtual spaces. Pakistan is relatively a new to this advancement, yet there has been a meticulous debate in progress to regulate these spaces and counter the crimes facilitated by the internet. New laws are being introduced to fight back technology-driven crimes. However, various provisions have enabled the state to curb fundamental freedoms. On the other hand, the government has also begun employing sophisticated technology to collect citizens’ information through digital means and store it as the state’s repositories.
These repositories form a massive database that contains personal information of citizens including biometric prints of millions of people, which the government also claims is one of the world’s largest databases. Mass collection of citizens’ digital data raises questions vis-à-vis security and protection of the data, and sharing with other parties, foreign governments, agencies, as well as corporate entities. The government of Pakistan has always been reluctant to answer these questions and uncover the information of public interest in the guise of national security.
Link: https://content.bytesforall.pk/publication/electronic-data-protection-pakistan