danni naeil

Category: Thesis

  • And so it begins

    It’s time fot the big finale: the writing of the master’s thesis!

    Last year I tried to get a scholarship for data collection abroad. Unfortunately I didn’t, mainly because I study political science and not STEM (albeit, if I may say so myself, I study STS – science and technology studies).

    Many attempts were made to contact organizations and academics in Canada. After a while I managed to receive replies from people whom I could interview about mining, Indigenous peoples, land rights and critical minerals. After a video meeting with one person, I decided to pay for the journey to Canada myself.

    Why travel from Sweden to Canada just to interview a few people on these topics? I’ve been wanting to do it for several years. Besides, I didn’t want to read and write. I wanted more than that.

    The same week our course officially started, I traveled to Canada. Thus I could spend time there and get acquainted with the literature necessary for the literary review.

    Partly it felt weird and almost unjustified. I did get much information indeed, about the situation in Canada (and Sweden, since two of them had visited Sweden and written about Fennoscandia), but only during the last interview did we touch on a feasible topics I could write about: resistance to mines in previous mining-friendly municipalities.

  • The debate on refugee espionage

    Refugee espionage, according to Swedish law, is when a person unlawfully, secretly and systematically, over time, gathers information about someone else in order to provide a foreign power this information. It’s been part of Swedish law since the 1940’s and Sweden is one of the few countries to actually prohibit this action.

    There’s research on transnational repression and digital transnational repression, for instance by The Citizen Lab, Marcus Michaelsen, and Siena Anstis and Sophie Barnett. Authoritarian countries spend resources and time to repress diasporas, dissidents and vocal ex-citizens, whether by physically collecting information and threatening them, or by using the Internet.

    How does the Swedish parliament and media debate refugee espionage since 2014, when the law was revised? Does the debate connect refugee espionage to the digital ways of surveilling and repressing people? What does it say about national security and Swedish sovereignty?

    This is my bachelor’s thesis in political science. You can find it here, although it’s only available in Swedish.

  • Thesis proceeding

    The snow is still covering parts of the ground and I’m writing the introduction, purpose and research questions on my bachelor’s thesis in political science. If all goes according to plan, it’ll be complete and presented to the examiner and supervisor in late May and in May-June it’ll be publicly discussed and examined.

    My only obstacle at the moment is the lack of research on digital transnational repression in Sweden and Scandinavia. I have ambiguous feelings about there not being much research, because on the one hand, it feels great to be one of the first students (in Sweden) to write about DTR and refugee espionage, but on the other hand, it’s also rather uncomfortable being one of the very first. The phenomenon needs to be introduced in a careful and simple, rather effortless, way, which is much more difficult than it may seem.

    Two of the articles I refer to and base my own thesis on are Drawing a line: Digital transnational repression against political exiles and host state sovereignty, and Digital Transnational Repression and Host States’ Obligation to Protect Against Human Rights Abuses. In different ways they highlight the obligations of the host state, and the vulnerability of the host state if it seems to lack capacity to protect its’ inhabitants. Too little has been researched here when researchers have focused on human rights and freedom. It’s not bad, but the phenomenon, I think, needs to be perceived as more than simply an abuse of human rights. It’ll never be enough to highlight one dimension of this form of repression.

    The Citizen Lab released their splendid report “Psychological and Emotional Warfare: Digital Transnational Repression in Canada” one year ago, which comprises interviews with people residing in Canada whom been targeted with various forms of DTR. If you’re looking for definitions and concepts, and insights to how it’s like living under digital surveillance and threats, the report is really useful.

  • Time to decide again

    It’s been two years and finally it’s time to study some more. In roughly one month, we’ll begin writing our bachelor thesis. Mine will (unless some pivotal change occurs) be about digital transnational repression in Sweden. There’s isn’t much research on this issue regarding Sweden. There’s scant research internationally too, except for Freedom House, The Citizen Lab and a few researchers specialized in the field, like Marcus Michaelsen. I’m about to dive into their research more thoroughly, choose my material wisely and formulate questions.

  • Reasons and responsibilites to protect personal data

    My essay is finished. The subject was how the Swedish government wrote about personal data in two strategies, namely the so-called Digitalization strategy and the National strategy for cyber security. Who is responsible for protecting personal data and what are the reasons to protect personal data? Is there a gender perspective present?

    Personal data is omnipresent and processed by companies, organizations, state authorities, the health care sector and municipalities. Many times for no reason at all or the collection and use concern personal data that should not be processed. Simultaneously, there’s plenty of stories how personal data is harvested or scraped by actors and there’s virtually no chance to know who holds personal data and where it is.

    Reading Swedish news can weekly tell how information and personal data is lost or abused. Personal data is collected on such a large scale, it’s impossible to protect it. Data brokers, governments, authorities, all are involved in this collection, processing and dissemination. What, then, does the Swedish government write about responsibilities and reasons to protect it?

    Why the gender perspective? The report Malign Creativity: How Gender, Sex and Lies are Weaponized against Women Online was issued earlier 2021. One of the conclusions is that online gendered abuse and misinformation is a national security issue by being directed at women (in this case) systematically, resulting in less public participation from women in a democratic society. Much of the abuse is directed by actors from other countries as well. Another is how women’s personal data can be abused and weaponized against them, for instance spreading conspiracies about sex, national, sexual and gender identity.

    Does personal data relate to national security in the government texts, or more to individual security? Can the loss or abuse of personal data threaten or weaken national security?

    My main conclusions are:

    ·  the Swedish government perceives everyone as responsible for personal data, though the individual has the utmost responsibility for his/her/their personal data

    ·  the government is mainly focused on thwarting crimes like child pornography

    ·  the government doesn’t want to centralize processing of personal data

    ·  too strong a state can threaten personal data and individual security

    ·  there’s a sort of built-in contradiction when the government wants public data more accessible for the creation of services by companies (for instance)