All Your Personal Data May Be Up For Sale For Less Than A Rupee.

Data Broking is still at a nascent stage in India. The $200 Billion global company generates over 50% of it's revenue through Marketing products followed by risk mitigation, which constitutes approximately 45% of the revenue, and, finally, the searches made by people constitutes the remainder.

Data Brokerage firms have been on a raise since the IT boom. For anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000, we were offered personal data of up to 1 lakh people in the major cities.

Though, data brokers may target masses at a stretch, the list can be filtered and personified to the customer's needs. The users don't usually know that their data is stolen, stolen again, is the most appropriate word. The data brokers usually get their information from mobile network operators, from bank and insurance agents and people of these sort. Usually, the customer never knows his data is up for sale, unless or until he decides to buy his own.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company was not aware of any data leak or any data being sold from their end, adding that any such case brought to their notice will be dealt with strictly to ensure customer data protection.

HDFC Bank and Axis Bank both said they work on educating customers about the importance of protecting private or personal details, as well as safe banking practices. "We can't confirm the authenticity of the data shared with you by the data brokers and would urge people to highlight to us if they come across instances like this for us to take it up with the relevant authorities," an Axis Bank spokesperson said.

“When you sign up for free discounts, fill out questionnaires, or your click stream in general, you are giving up all the data voluntarily and agreeing to privacy policies that allow you to do so,”a spokesperson said to Economic Times.

Misuse of financial data is another threat. The Reserve Bank of India registered 8,689 cases of fraud involving credit cards, ATM/debit cards and internet banking up till December 2016, ET reported. Many of these frauds are perpetrated by scamsters by getting customers to share critical data like CVVs or one-time passwords (OTPs).

Next time, be careful on what sites you use and what forms you fill, because you'd never know when your details are stolen and for what reasons they would be used.

(Derived based on an article posted in Economic Times)

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