Sovereignty in a ‘Datafied’ World

Through multilateral diplomacy at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other forums, India has placed itself at the centre-stage of the global battle on data governance. The pillar of its foreign policy vision in this domain is the principle of “data sovereignty”, which supports the assertion of sovereign writ over data generated by citizens within a country’s physical boundaries. Corollary to this idea is the call for greater attention on “data colonialism”, or the extractive economic practices of Western technology companies seeking to consolidate their market power at the expense of individual users in the developing world, who are, to begin with, the creators of this data. [1] Given its massive population, economic heft, and rapidly rising number of internet users, India has a unique opportunity to navigate the existing fissures in global data governance and create a meaningful impact on rule-shaping in this space. It has taken strong positions in WTO debates, including to assert that any rule-making on data governance outside the consensus-driven model of the WTO will dilute the voices of emerging economies and suppress their sovereign right to frame rules that further their citizens’ best interests. [2]