The Lebanese government’s response to Covid-19 was deeply affected by the failing economy and political unrest, both of which the government helped create. The government’s haphazard lockdown strategy, which shifted based on the political mood, was ultimately ineffective as the government did not develop a long-term strategy to deal with[...]
In this #BreadandNet 2020 session, Sacha Robehmed from International Rescue Committee (IRC) discusses the role of online platforms in connecting organizations to individuals, while maintaining online privacy and security. COVID-19 forced many humanitarian organizations to rapidly adopt digital tools like Whatsapp to share information with crisis-affected populations, and to deliver[...]
This report analyzes data protection and privacy laws in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Joey Shea, a researcher and analyst specialized in security and political repression, documents the deployment of COVID-19 contact tracing applications in these states. The report, which was supported through CYRILLA’s Applied Advocacy and[...]
With the onset of the economic crisis and the pandemic, Lebanon’s educational system has been thrown into turmoil. Education in Lebanon changed dramatically with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is taking place remotely on digital platforms. This abrupt shift to the digital realm has significant academic and social[...]
On September 1, the Ministry of Public Health launched Ma3an – Together Against Corona, a contact-tracing application intended to stop the spread of Covid-19. After a preliminary review, SMEX found that although the application collects limited personal data, it contains a few security flaws. The Ministry of Public Health, in[...]
SMEX is seeking a part-time researcher to work on a project assessing the Lebanese government’s technical response, or lack thereof, to the Covid-19 crisis. The project is part of a comparative study analyzing the implications of the technical measures governments adopted, with a particular focus on the adoption of contact-tracing[...]
With the continuing crises that Lebanon and the world are facing, we at SMEX have sought ways in which free knowledge, which is an integral part of the ecosystem of digital rights, can contribute to addressing the emerging problems. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, SMEX has invested in[...]
