India’s About to Hand People Data Americans Can Only Dream Of

  • New system aims to protect data and unlock the credit market
  • India joins a growing movement to give consumers data control
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

India has more than 560 million internet users, all generating data by the terabyte. Soon they’ll have an unprecedented amount of control over their digital financial footprints, with the ability to decide what to share, with whom, and for how long.

India’s top banks are getting ready to roll out a system that gives consumers access to a wide swath of their financial data and allows them to share it instantly. Backed by the Reserve Bank of India, it’s an ambitious approach that combines privacy protection with credit reporting: if it works, it could unlock the credit market for millions of Indians while offering new levels of data security and consumer control.