Digital Profiling and Personal Data Surveillance in Islamic Jurisprudence: A Comparative Legal-Ethical Study

Abstract

Under what is now known as “Surveillance Capitalism,” personal data has become a new form of capital exploited by corporations, institutions, and governments. The issue is no longer limited to targeted advertising, but extends to shaping behaviors, influencing opinions, and even manipulating free will. This poses unprecedented challenges for Islamic jurisprudence, which places human dignity among its highest objectives (maqāṣid). As artificial intelligence becomes central to behavioral analysis and digit...

Recent studies (Mohadi & Tarshany, 2023; Hasan, 2024) highlight how collecting and analyzing user data without explicit consent constitutes not only an ethical breach but also a legal and Sharī‘ah violation. This necessitates a principled yet realistic jurisprudential framework that balances benefit and harm.