Sabhanaz Rashid Diya

Sabhanaz Rashid Diya is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, within the Social Sciences Division. She is also the founder and executive director of Tech Global Institute, a tech policy nonprofit focused on advancing equity in technology design and governance for the Global South. With over two decades of experience at the intersection of technology policy, ethics and international development, Diya has advised governments in more than 20 countries and previously served as head of public policy for Bangladesh at Meta.

Diya holds a master's degree in public policy from the University of California at Berkeley and serves as a senior fellow at the Centre of International Governance Innovation. Her research focuses on platform governance, inequality, public policy, ethics, and international governance, with particular attention to the Global South context and digital rights.

Diya's recent publications reveal a strong focus on privacy rights in developing contexts, pandemic response policies, gender equity in technology, and the intersection of digital platforms with human rights. Her work consistently emphasizes the importance of local context in technology policy and governance, challenging Western-centric approaches to digital solutions.

Her notable awards and recognitions include contributions to major publications in BBC, Wired, Financial Times, The Straits Times, France24, Reuters, and The Daily Star. Her research on privacy in the Global South, particularly her 2024 article 'Do the poor have a right to privacy,' has gained significant attention for highlighting systemic privacy challenges in low- and middle-income countries.

Diya actively engages with policy development, having contributed to discussions around Bangladesh's draft Personal Data Protection Act and conducted research through Tech Global Institute on platform privacy policies in non-Western contexts. Her work bridges academic research, policy advocacy, and practical technology governance solutions.

She maintains an active presence in both academic and policy circles, with ongoing research projects examining digital rights, platform governance, and equitable technology design for marginalized communities worldwide.