Personal Data Sold for Growing Profit in Growing Privacy Breach
Experts warn that data theft, disguised as lead generation, has become an organised industry.
Data Breach Unsecured Warning Sign Concept.
An Economic Times investigation uncovered a growing black market for personal data, with sensitive information like flight details, broadband requests, and property transactions being sold for as little as ₹150 to ₹300.
Informants, such as security guards and employees at call centers, are cashing in by selling these datasets to telemarketers, real estate agents, and online platforms.
Telemarketer Rishabh Shukla, for example, earned ₹1.5 lakhs in just three months by gathering visitor information from Noida apartment complexes and selling it to online real estate platforms.
Shukla’s leads were highly sought after, with companies paying up to ₹10,000 for accurate datasets, which were then used by interior designers, brokers, and property dealers.
Experts warn that data theft, disguised as lead generation, has become an organised industry. In competitive sectors like telecom and real estate, personal information is sold between companies for profit. Data from the hospitality and travel sectors is also shared, with customer databases used to cross-sell services like credit cards and loans.
While the new Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act aims to address these privacy breaches by enforcing penalties for unauthorised data sharing, experts say it could take two to three years for full compliance.
In the meantime, scammers are increasingly using AI-driven tools like voice cloning and deepfakes to impersonate individuals and defraud others, adding another layer of complexity to the growing data privacy crisis.
