Should privacy be a tradable right?

In Focus by The Hindu · Apr 6, 2026 · 51m

India is a poor country, but it is ‘data-rich’. The dominant consensus today holds that data – including personal data -- should be exploited for economic growth. Is it possible that this consensus is wrong? One outcome of this consensus is the ‘consent regime’, which paves the way for monetisation of personal data. You tick a box to give your ‘consent’ and that’s it, so far as your privacy is concerned – it’s now a tradable commodity. But is it ok to have markets for privacy? Or, is it similar to having markets for organs, or for blood donation, or for child labour? A new scholarly paper…