From commitment to implementation : Strengthening privacy and data protection through open government adoption in Lebanon

Open government (OG) initiatives can strengthen transparency, participation and accountability, but they can also expand privacy and cyber risk where personal data governance is weak. This paper examines the tension between OG adoption and privacy protection in Lebanon, focusing on whether Lebanon’s current legal, institutional and technical arrangements can support ‘open by default’ practices without exposing citizens and public officials to misuse, breach or unlawful surveillance.1 The paper maps Lebanon’s data protection gaps against international and regional comparators and identifies practical vulnerabilities relevant to OG implementation, including fragmented privacy rules, limited enforcement capacity, inconsistent cyber security maturity, low levels of public sector training and weak citizen awareness.2 It then proposes a prioritised roadmap for integrating privacy safeguards into Lebanon’s OG trajectory through: (i) comprehensive, modern data protection legislation; (ii) independent oversight and complaint-handling capacity; and (iii) operational controls including privacy-by-design, data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) for high-risk data releases, tiered access models, anonymisation standards and breach preparedness.3 The central argument is that OG credibility depends on making privacy safeguards measurable, enforceable and operational, ensuring that transparency gains do not come at the expense of individual rights. This article is also included in The Business and Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.