Technology: Friend or Foe for Women of Myanmar The SAC amended multiple laws to legitimize its surveillance of the people. On 13 February 2021, it repealed sections (5), (7), and (8) of the Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens. Section 8(d) of the law used to protect citizens by preventing easy access to citizens’ mobile phones and electronic communications data. On 15 February 2021, SAC amended the Electronic Transactions Law to further restrict internet users and establish a framework for the interception of electronic communications. On 1 November 2021, with the intention to control online news agencies, the Broadcasting Law 2015 was amended. The law originally applied only to television and radio; however, the new amendments vaguely define ‘broadcasting’ to include “any other technology” that people use to access audio-visual media. This definition effectively extends the law to social media and digital news agencies, and also means that individual users could potentially fall under the purview of the amended law when distributing audio-visual media online. A draft Cybersecurity Law was leaked on 13 January 2022. Section (27) would mandate that service providers keep the personal data of users, and Section (38) that the authorities can request access to this data with few limitations. In addition, Section (58) would allow SAC to conduct interception. (Currently, Myanmar doesn’t have a legal framework on lawful interception based on international standards.) The draft law would have also criminalized the use of VPN with up to three years imprisonment. The draft law was never officially enacted, but after it was leaked, SAC troops started checking the mobile phones of civilians at military checkpoints, and arrested or extorted VPN users and those with applications for banned social media platforms on their devices. Many internet users in Myanmar use VPNs to bypass social media bans and to anonymize their Internet Protocol (IP) address. Fearful of being tracked and arrested, some interviewees have turned off the location setting on their phones and turned to selfcensorship, while others continue expressing their views by setting up multiple social media accounts. As one digital rights activist explained, “the increasing trend of ad hoc checkpoints and arrests for alleged illegal VPN usage further installs a greater sense of fear and insecurity among ordinary apolitical people which implies that the junta can arrest anyone at any given time and any given place if they want to. It undermines an individual’s rights to expression, information, and privacy. The draft cybersecurity law is also a threat to anyone who opposes the junta.” 50