Digital surveillance

The number of cybercrime cases has been increasing in the country at an unprecedented pace. One of the reasons for a huge increase in such crimes is the anonymity factor. There have been various incidents where an anonymous person cheats a person. These scammers send SMSes to people and ask them for their bank account details to steal their money. To solve this issue, certain measures should be taken on an urgent basis. There should be certain protocols that telecom companies must develop to monitor the content of messages without compromising their users’ privacy.

One readily available technique in other parts of the world is called ‘digital search warrants’. A software agent is created to inspect billions of messages daily to uncover the intention of fraud, harassment and crime. But this surveillance should only be allowed if the content of the message infringes the laws and rules developed by the country’s cybercrime department. In this way, we can easily save potential victims from getting scammed.

Muhammad Abubakar Siddique

Lahore