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.