Privacy violations and discrimination
in Myanmar
Submission to the UN OHCHR on unequal enjoyment of the right to privacy – May 2025
Introduction
Since the 2021 coup, the military has swiftly turned digital technologies into instruments of
repression, systematically collecting and processing personal data to carry out mass
surveillance, identify dissent, and crush opposition movements. The military’s violations of the
right to privacy also strengthen existing inequalities and enable discrimination against ethnic
and religious minorities, women, LGBTIQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, older
persons, and other marginalised groups.
Human Rights Myanmar submits this report on the situation in Myanmar to the UN High
Commissioner’s global review of discrimination and unequal enjoyment of the right to privacy,
under Human Rights Council Resolution 54/21.
Privacy and data protection in Myanmar
Myanmar’s military has demolished any semblance of legal or institutional safeguards for
privacy since seizing power in 2021. Although the 2008 Constitution nominally guarantees
privacy of “home, property, correspondence and other communications,” no comprehensive
data protection law exists, and authorities routinely override any residual protections.
Cyber Security “Law”
The centrepiece of this erosion is the Cyber Security “Law,” enacted in 2025. Instead of
safeguarding personal data, it mandates that all digital platforms retain users’ information—
names, phone numbers, IP addresses, browsing logs—for three years and hand it over on
demand to military authorities. Earlier drafts included data protection clauses, but these were
stripped out or shifted to the Electronic Transactions Act, leaving a fragmented and
contradictory framework. Under this cyber law, security agencies intercept private
communications and track locations without warrants. Appeals against surveillance or
takedown orders go to military‐controlled bodies, not independent courts, making every data
request opaque and arbitrary.