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Joint Submission to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age: Mass surveillance, Digital Contact-tracing, Social Media Monitoring, and Data Requests in Southeast Asia
June 2022
In June 2022, Manushya Foundation and the ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship​​ submitted a Joint Submission to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to inform the report on the right to privacy in the digital age at its 51th session in 2022.
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The Submission highlights privacy threats and challenges in nine countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and focuses on the following issues:
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A. State-sponsored targeted and mass surveillance;
B. COVID-19 and digital contact-tracing and monitoring tools;
C. Monitoring of social media activities; and
D. Control over and requests for data handover to tech companies.
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In response to these trends, the ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship provides a set of recommendations to governments and businesses on the basis of prevailing privacy rights principles and best practices.
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