Searching for a Farang: Collective Security Among Women in Pattaya, Thailand

We report on two months of ethnographic fieldwork in a women's centre in Pattaya, and interviews with 76 participants. Our findings, as they relate to digital security, show how (i) women in Pattaya, often working in the sex and massage industries, perceived relationships with farang men as their best, and sometimes only, option to achieve security; (ii) the strategies used by the women to appeal to a farang involved presenting themselves online, mirroring how they were being advertised by bar owners to attract customers; (iii) appealing to what they considered ‘Western ideals’, the women sought out ‘Western technologies’ and appropriated them for their benefit; (iv) the women navigated a series of online security risks, such as scams and abuse, which shaped their search for a farang; (v) the women developed collective security through knowledge-sharing to protect themselves and each other in their search for a farang. We situate our work in emerging digital security scholarship within marginalised contexts.