When Data Bodies Become Targets: New Risks in a Networked World

This op-ed by Laila Shereen Sakr argues that “data bodies” — the digital traces institutions and platforms compile on individuals — have become instruments of surveillance and lethal targeting, most acutely for Palestinians and other Arabs. She cites AI targeting systems like Lavender, facial recognition tools such as Red Wolf, and Big Tech infrastructure (Google’s Project Nimbus, Amazon’s cloud services) enabling Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, alongside civilian harms from exploding pagers and warning-text strikes. She contrasts this with liberatory counter-uses of data, such as Visualizing Palestine, Palestine Love, and Tech for Palestine, and closes by warning that these surveillance dynamics are not contained: US agencies and domestic policies (like abortion bans) show that the same networked, extractive data systems threaten vulnerable populations everywhere, not just “over there.”