This year, these are the thermal imaging and a robot characterized drones that give religious advice.a decade agoAll this was about the miracle of mobile phones. And a century or earlier, the motor car was the highest of high-technology used during the annual Haj pilgrimage.
Hajj, one of the biggest meetings of humans on earth, means that they underape every adult Muslim once in their lifetime. It will begin in Saudi Arabia on 4 June and end on 9 June. During those days, 2 million pilgrims from more than 180 countries want to participate in several different religious ceremonies in Mecca.
But so many people had problems in the past due to comparatively walking in small areas. In 1990 and 2015, thousands of pilgrims were killed in sealing the crowd. Last year died due to extreme heat of over 1.300; Pilgrims often run in 40 to 50 ° C heat in 65 kilometers a day. There has been found, protest, suicide, collapse of buildings and infectious diseases in Haj, such as more everyday problems such as people getting free or health problems.
No wonder Saudi officials are trying to use technology how they control the crowd and complete their visitors. This year, Saudi Arabia will use the thermal imaging as well as the artificial intelligence and facial identification technology to ensure that only the toes who have pemels are allowed.
Many of the last year’s deaths were mostly pilgrims, who did not have official permission to be there and could not reach services such as air -conditioned shelters in extreme heat.
Can high -tech can promote security?
To avoid congestion, Saudi Arabia’s Nusuk website, ie a mobile phone application, allows to register to enter some areas at the allotted time. The NUSUK system includes electronic identity cards and a smart restband, who know about the user’s identity, travel plan, finance, health and housing. The Nusuk card should be transported through pilgrimage and is used to access transport and other services. In some wrists, location is trekking, monitoring the wearer’s blood oxygen levels and heart rate, and even for medical aid can be used.
Other technological progresses in this year’s Hajj of this year include robots to guide visitors around religious places and to hand over water, Quran or advise in 11 languages. There are new firm, more contemplative (and therefore coolers) roads, pathways that reduce vibrations for comfort, and a special white pilgrim’s gown is made of futuristic fabric that keeps up to 2 ° C coolers.
All technology, monitoring and advanced algorithm calculation means to make the event safe and the possibility of tragedy accidents. But as the amount of technology increases, sooo data worries about privacy, state monitoring and potential cyber crime.
“All these techniques and those who refuse to pilgrimage are not allowed to pilgrimage,” says Zenab Ismail, a researcher and editor from the Lebanese Digital Rights Organization, Smex -based Digital Rights Organization,. “All this, combined with Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Act, that only partially align with international standards and relates to commissions and flaws, expresses concern about the security and privacy of the data of the pilgrims.”
Saudi officials have argued that the concerns of privacy should be excluded in search of a huge event.
“regardless of the [Saudi government’s] Justification, which worries me the most – and accepts itself about technology – is the fact that this technology is being deployed in the country where the rule of law is weak, there is no transparency here and there is no transparency here. [state] Accountability, “International Digital Rights Organization, Access Now is the argument of the Director of Policy for the Middle East and North Africa, Marwa Fatata.
FATAFTA told DW that it would be difficult for the problem to audit technologies and also for individuals.
“For those who are going into the Haj pilgrimage, they are not in any situation to push back and say,” I want to give my biometric data “,” He continued. “So just the general reference means that the door is open to misuse.”
‘Contact us’?
Reading the terms and conditions of the Nusuk app, information about how long pilgrims can be kept in personal data, vague and even contradictory. DW oversee Saudi Arabia’s National Data Management Office and Saudi Data and AI Authority to seek more information about it. Both organizations publish e-mail addresses to the public if they have questions or want to complain.
Two DW e-mail received no response. Bounted back with another message: “The recipient’s mailbox is full.”
Since 2023, Saudi Arabia had an individual data protection law – but as Ismail said, “The current legal structure … allows the law to interpret or manipulate in ways that can serve the state’s interests on human rights.”
This is not just a possible misuse of data of millions of pilgrims by local authorities, which causes anxiety. High dependence on technology to monitor and control Haj pilgrims means more vulnerability, as there are more spaces for hackers to attack. And Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are already the biggest victims of cyber crime.
The first platform Saudi Arabia was used to register pilgrims, Motavif, run by a private company and unexpectedly sent spam to users. The state -run Nusuk app changed it to 2022. The following year, cyber security experts found that the data presented to Nusuk for sale on illegal websites that deal with stolen personal data.
Low religion, more cyber
The new technology has brought another concern: is all this high -tech taking away from the spiritual relevance of life at once?
A 2018 study conducted by researchers at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK suggested that it could be.
The pilgrims interviewed for the study complained about oothing selfies at the holy sites, spoke over the phone while performing rituals and treated like tourists rather than holy visitors. An interviewer said, “The smartphone has foreh devil in Haj.”
Some also complained that all technology was making the journey very easy.
Where once the pilgrims moved among the holy sites, now they ride a high -speed train. And where once they stayed in ordinary tents, now they accommodated 10,000 air-conditioned, fire-resistant tents.
Researchers in the UK wrote, “Since Haj has become ‘high-tech’, the fundamentalism of ‘Pilgrim’s experience is certainly changing something equally for a’ cyber experience ‘,” has been written by the UK researchers. Traditionally Haj means about simplicity, spiritual purity and reflective worship, he explained.
With every child of digital technology, high -tech benefits and deprived in Haj, they conceptualized.
Edited by: Jess Smi
