Saudi Arabia will have access to private internet information

Microsoft and Google are planning the construction of large internet server and cloud information storage facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Human rights activists are warning that Saudi officials could use the vast stores of digital information being stored in the kingdom to intensify its persecution of political dissidents.

They are warning tech giants like Microsoft and Google that they could be forced to hand over private citizen data to Saudi hitmen.

Human Rights Watch warned that under Saudi law, security services are given sweeping powers to access data, and can compel companies to hand over private information deemed to have breached ill-defined and broad national security laws.

It said that Google and Microsoft, two of the biggest tech firms in the world, are refusing to disclose how they will shield the privacy of data hosted in the kingdom.

Marwa Fatafta, an analyst with digital rights group Access Now, described Saudi Arabia as a country with a "dismal" human rights record.

In recent years, Saudi authorities have ruthlessly pursued government critics on social media, using spyware to track exiled dissidents, and even reportedly infiltrating Twitter's headquarters to steal data. Recently, Saudi authorities jailed a woman, Fatima al-Shawarbi, for 30 years who criticized the Neom megacity project on Twitter. In 2020, Leeds University student, Salma al-Shehab, was given a 30-year jail sentence for criticizing the crown prince on the social media platform.

Professor Alan Woodward, a computer technology expert at the University of Surrey, explained that countries such as Saudi Arabia often tell companies that "if you want to operate in this country, you've got to keep the data in this country. And that's for an obvious reason: So they could potentially access it."

Microsoft and Google claim to care about and try to protect human rights, but might be placing profits above human rights concerns.​

Microsoft and Google May Have to Surrender People's Data to Saudi Arabia (businessinsider.com), Tom Porter, July 24, 2023

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