This policy brief is based on the 2024 research report "Mapping Tech Companies' Cloud Expansion in the Gulf and its Human Rights Implications."
In 2018, major global tech companies began looking at the Gulf region as a potential home for their cloud infrastructure. The financial incentives offered by GCC countries proved to be the determining factor in attracting major Western and Chinese tech companies. Their collaboration, however, raises major concerns. Many of these corporations notoriously lack transparency about data processing and security measures. Housing their infrastructure in countries where freedom of expression, access to information, and dissent are under threat poses potential risks of human rights abuses.
The increasing number of data centers in the Gulf region means that more data will be stored on Gulf soil, making this data subject to local laws. Unfortunately, these states have a record of using surveillance against citizens and residents and heightened data control with limited privacy protections. For example authorities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain are legally allowed to access personal data with little to no oversight, putting the privacy of journalists, activists and residents at risk. As many Gulf states further expand their cloud infrastructure, control over digital communications and data could become a serious threat for internet users.
In this context, cloud investments by big tech companies like Google, Amazon and Huawei take place without adequate transparency about the human rights risks associated with these businesses. These mega corporations do not set enough safeguards to ensure that the infrastructure they build in the Gulf is compliant with international human rights standards. The Gulf governments may publicly promote these developments as economic diversification efforts, but data and cloud centers could be tools of digital surveillance. Unless they place protections and commit towards preserving digital rights, tech companies would be reinforcing and legitimizing the potential for data breaches in Gulf states.
The expansion of critical digital infrastructure in GCC countries presents significant challenges for digital rights in the broader WANA region. Without meaningful accountability from tech companies and strong human rights protections, abuses will continue to worsen.
Research Policy Brief
