Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia makes no secret of his desire to transform his country. Since he began consolidating power in 2015, he has marketed himself to domestic and international audiences as a force of modernity, touting an agenda of cultural liberalization and economic reform. In 2016, he outlined his would-be revolution with the release of “Saudi Vision 2030,” an ambitious plan to establish Saudi Arabia as a “global investment powerhouse” and “a gateway to the world.”

The development of a “sophisticated digital infrastructure” is at the heart of Prince Mohammed’s vision. And while many of his proposals remain unrealized — loftily promised futuristic cities have yet to materialize — the crown prince’s obsession with technology has wrought some significant changes. He has overhauled numerous state agencies from the top down, establishing “e-government solutions” for services like court fees, charitable donations, health care and travel records. The slew of new e-portals are overseen by the newly created National Digitization Unit, a centralizing agency tasked with being a “disrupter” of the status quo and an “incubator” for a modern information society.

The shift toward “e-government” has brought welcome efficiency to Saudi Arabia’s sluggish public sector. The government boasts that Meras, an interface for starting businesses, has cut the wait time for some financial services from 81 days to 24 hours, while the Ministry of Interior’s app Absher gives citizens access to 130 government procedures from their phones. With a population that is largely young (roughly 70 percent of Saudis are under 35) and tech-savvy (there are approximately 1.4 cellphones for every resident), Saudi Arabia is primed for such digitization. According to the government’s own data, Absher alone logged over 20 million transactions between mid-2015 and August 2018.

When using these apps, Saudis make a familiar trade-off: swapping access to their personal information and devices in exchange for convenience. But unlike, say, a customer of Amazon, a Saudi citizen often has little choice. Certain government fees, for example, are now payable only online, according to a Saudi journalist.