Social Media User Surveillance as a Cyber Security Threat: A Case Study of Pakistan

Abstract

User data privacy is an issue that has only become more concerning in the age of data economy and surveillance capitalism. Major social media companies—this research focuses on Facebook and YouTube—reign supreme with access to unlimited user data. However, data is also acquired through extensive forms of surveillance that go beyond profiling individuals based on their social media activity to tracking their other online as well as offline activity. The data collected then is also made accessible to third-party agents as well as state agencies. This is precisely why the issue of social media user surveillance becomes a cybersecurity threat to citizens’ data which, this research argues, is a collective asset integral to national security. Countries such as China, and the EU recognise this as they enforce laws against social media companies. Pakistan, however, with its lack of awareness regarding data privacy at the policy and consumer level, severely lags behind. This research aims to frame the issue of social media user surveillance and data collection as a cybersecurity threat for Pakistan, and thereby affirm that existing policy is not effective against it. For this purpose, it applies realism as its theoretical framework which aptly explains data sovereignty—a concept that is at the core of this study’s hypothesis. The research primarily employs qualitative research methods by conducting a comparative critical analysis of selected social media companies’ policies and Pakistan’s cybersecurity policies and legal framework. The findings of the analysis prove essential in determining the gaps in existing policy and what issues an effective regulatory social media data policy must address.