Digital Surveillance and Everyday Resistance in the Global South

Dan Hyeroba

Department of Business Kampala International University Uganda

Email: hyeroba@kiu.ac.ug

                                                                                           ABSTRACT
Digital surveillance has become an increasingly significant feature of governance and everyday life across the Global South. The rapid expansion of digital technologies, mobile connectivity, and data-driven governance has enabled states, corporations, and transnational actors to collect, process, and deploy vast amounts of personal data. While these practices are often justified in terms of development, security, and service delivery, they
simultaneously raise critical concerns regarding privacy, rights, and power asymmetries. This paper examines how digital surveillance operates within the distinctive political, economic, and technological contexts of the Global South and how individuals and communities respond through forms of everyday resistance. Drawing on insights from Surveillance Studies and Everyday Resistance Theory, the study highlights how ordinary actors employ subtle, informal, and networked strategies, such as privacy framing, data localization initiatives, digital rights advocacy, and collective action to challenge pervasive monitoring. Through a comparative discussion of regional dynamics in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, the paper demonstrates that resistance is shaped by local governance structures, digital infrastructures, and social inequalities. Despite structural constraints such as limited digital literacy, infrastructural gaps, and regulatory weaknesses, citizens
continue to adapt and mobilize to defend autonomy and rights in digitally mediated environments. The analysis ultimately underscores that digital surveillance in the Global South is not merely a top-down process of control but also a site of ongoing negotiation, contestation, and agency. Understanding these everyday forms of resistance contributes to broader debates on digital governance, citizenship, and the future of democratic rights in increasingly datafied societies.

Keywords: Digital Surveillance, Everyday Resistance, Global South, Data Governance, and Digital Rights.

CITE AS: Dan Hyeroba (2026). Digital Surveillance and Everyday Resistance in the Global South. NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION, 6(1): 9-18. https://doi.org/10.59298/NIJRE/2026/61918