My data or yours?

 Aug 27, 2024

 IIIT-Bangalore

Workshop on 
“My data or yours?” Unravelling Multi-Party Privacy (MPP) among Consumers of Digital Credit in India

27 August 2024 | 1400-1545 (IST) | Hybrid Event

In person at International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore

Register here: https://forms.gle/vyPMoYcrsYn9QakF9

India has witnessed exponential growth in digital financial innovation. Data released by the Reserve Bank of India shows the extent of digital financial inclusion in India. The volume of digital payments through UPI was about 154 billion in number last financial year, representing about 80 percent of total payments made in the country. Compare this with the volume of cash withdrawal in India’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) which is only about 8 billion in number. Digital payments in India contribute to about 97 percent of total payment transfers in terms of value, about $2.35 trillion, while the cash withdrawal is just one-third of this. Though urban areas and high-income users are quick to adopt digital financial services, the recent Amazon Pay Kearney report indicates that the future growth of digital payments in India will come from smaller cities and low-income populations.

Digital lending, which forms a subset of digital financial services, has been advocated as the next best alternative to the traditional forms of lending practised by the financial institutions. A large number of start-ups have started providing digital lending services on their own or mediate between borrowers and lenders to facilitate minimal collateral loans. Though aimed at potential borrowers in low income rural areas, the effectiveness and sustainability of digital lending for this segment still poses considerable challenges. Further, the enactment of Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 in India along with the central bank’s strict guidelines on digital lending has made it mandatory for the digital lending and financial firms to pay considerable due diligence to personal data protection and privacy. The alternate date, purposely used by the digital lending firms to rank the credit worthiness of the potential borrowers in the absence of financial collaterals, needs to be examined from data protection point of view.

It is in this context that we embarked on this project of analysing the data protection and privacy and their impact of providing digital lending services. We were also more focussed on co-owned data items such as alternate data that might have connotations for Multi-Party Privacy (MPP).

In this workshop, we will provide the research findings and invite panellists for a discussion on the same.

This project is being supported by the Digital Credit Observatory at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

                                                                     Tentative Agenda