Personal Data Protection as a Tool to Fight Cyber Corruption

Abstract

As digital technologies proliferate, personal data vulnerabilities enable new forms of systemic corruption. Robust data protection frameworks are essential safeguards, yet remain underutilized in anti-corruption efforts. This paper analyzes the complex intersection between privacy, cyber-security and corruption. Rapid technological change has led to exponential growth in personal data generation. However, legal and ethical oversight lags behind. Vast troves of user data are harvested, often without full consent or transparency, creating information asymmetries ripe for abuse. Data may be exploited, manipulated, or weaponized to enable digital authoritarianism, cybercrime, discrimination, elite capture, and other corrupt ends. Users lack control over or visibility into data misuse once obtained. Case examples showcase vulnerabilities across sectors. Tighter constraints on data collection, use and sharing, coupled with oversight and accountability measures, can help rein in these risks. While data protection principles increasingly shape global governance frameworks, considerable implementation and enforcement gaps persist. Integrating privacy into anti-corruption programs as a core pillar, alongside transparency and ethics initiatives, is vital to secure the data flows underpinning digital societies against corrupt interests.