DATA BROKERING-REGULATING THE UNREGULATED

With the increased appropriation of internet and access to it as a right in global jurisdictions and the recent addition of internet as an essential instrument for expression u/A 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India, flow of digital data has found greater volume and strength; with this, the marketplace of data has swollen. As a business activity of B-to-B model, this phenomena of trade in personal information retrieved from the consumers of services, is termed as ‘Data Brokerage’. Personal data in the nature of health statistics, internet habits, financial information etc. is compiled, categorized, analysed and sold to organizations that use it to predict customer behaviours for running targeted advertisements; or is published in public domain. The instant paper is an inquiry into the data brokerage industry which tends to work on the fringes of established law due to its unregulated nature and lack of legal procedures to supervise the entities conducting such businesses. It is advanced that the theory of ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ indiscriminately accepts the relevance of information based on its demand and popular acceptability; and this self-regulated marketplace hosts severalty of legal and privacy concerns. The dimension of ‘duty of care’ as to handling of such personal data and threats to its misuse in the likes of cybercrimes like cyber frauds, identity theft and breach of privacy, will be explored.