Surveillance & stalking
Definition & description
Online surveillance is the act of capturing, monitoring and policing people's information and activities in digital spaces, whether it is public or private. Surveillance affects our freedom of opinion and expression, right to privacy and our freedom to be who we are online. While surveillance is commonly understood as a national security issue, in reality, surveillance is often used to harass and cause harm to women, girls and LGBTQ persons.
Women, girls and LGBTQ persons experience fear of being monitored by their partners or family members, or fear of their online information and activities being ‘outed’ and used to shame and attack them.
Stalking consists of harmful, obsessive behaviours that disrupt the lives of victims and causes extreme distress due to a lack of safety in public spaces, including through the use of digital technology.
Incident response: What do I do?
Assess your risk. Has the online surveillance and stalking made you concerned for your physical safety or that of your family or colleagues? We have a DIY risk assessment you can take in deciding your next step. The assessment is just a guide, but if you’re being made to feel physically unsafe in any way, trust your instincts. You may need to temporarily relocate to a hotel or a friend’s place. Tell someone you trust about your location (ideally through an encrypted channel like Signal or a secret channel on Telegram).
Reporting it to police. Stalking is now a crime in Malaysia. It is understandable that you do not feel safe coming forward to the authorities. If you do decide to make a report, we hope the information on this page will help you.
NOTE: Reporting may be seen as a simple step to most, however, for victims it may be a difficult task to do and it is completely okay. The most important thing is to avoid the retraumatization of victims. If you feel this is a heavy process to do, we recommend reaching out to someone you trust to help you.
Block. Stop all communication with the stalker immediately. Block or remove them from your email, messaging apps and social media. Remember to change your privacy setting so that they do not have access to your friend or follower list.
Strengthen your locks. You may want to consider changing all your passwords to prevent others from intruding and hacking your information. Opt for long, strong and unique passwords and use two-factor authentication where it is possible.
Learn more about how you can create and maintain strong password here:
Document it. It may be worthwhile to create an incident log and documents the threats and harassments. You may screen capturing the messages or content, saving the relevant links, saving a screen capture of your complaints, etc. Make sure the screen captures are inclusive of the date of the harassment. If you consider reporting to law enforcement, your documentation would be very useful.
If you are thinking about documenting the harassment but the idea of going back to the platforms can be triggering for you, ask for assistance from someone you trust.
Laws in Malaysia on surveillance & stalking
Section 507A of the Penal Code (Anti-Stalking Law) provides that a person is deemed to have committed stalking if the individual repeatedly by any act of harassment, intends to cause or knowing or ought to know, that such an act causes distress, fear or alarm to any person with regard to their safety.
Anti-Sexual Harassment Act 2022 penalises any act of sexual harassment which is defined as "any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, in any form, whether verbal, non-verbal, visual, gestural or physical, directed at a person which is reasonably offensive or humiliating or is a threat to his well-being". This will extend to sexual harassment committed or assisted by digital technologies.
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