Law is often conceptualised to protect human rights from the ruling forces of its time. While it safeguards rights, it keeps those forces under scrutiny. In the digital age, the right to privacy is the most important and easy-to-violate human right. Thus, its protection remains a daunting task. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the lack of regulatory measures for corporations, coupled with power asymmetry, poses a real threat to the protection of the right to privacy. In addition, the idea of consent is paradoxical. Though it theoretically protects the right to privacy, in practice, it has transformed into a legal instrument that has normalised surveillance.  

Amidst the digital revolution, Google engineers invented a mechanism to process random trails of the user data to predict human behavior, turning the user data into a new revenue-generating tool. By the time this invention became known to the public, many digital platforms had incorporated it into their digital ecosystems. This sort of data extraction was defined as surveillance capitalism.

To be more precise, the term surveillance capitalism — coined by Shoshana Zuboff — refers to an economic system that treats human experience as a fuel for capitalistic profit. It allows digital platforms to access user data, break down behavioral patterns, and deploy it to enhance user experience. In essence, it describes a surveillance tactic imitating technological advancement, which........

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