Data collection byproducts are legally unprotected and cheaply traded in developing countries.

Evidence

In theory, all this data collection must work around privacy and consumer-rights constraints, but often it does not. Although some countries offer more protection than others, Katherine Strandburg’s observation that “US law for the most part has not regulated the datafication or repurposing of information that is acquired as a byproduct of providing service” is applicable beyond North America and particularly in developing countries. In India, for instance, one can easily buy lists of one hundred thousand individuals (car owners, retired women, or any number of categories) for less than $250; the lists are generated from information collected by mobile companies or even by enterprising individuals working at banks or hospitals looking to make some extra cash. In China, regulation about what data companies can collect and what they can do with it is intentionally relaxed, which the government hopes will make Chinese companies more competitive in the global market. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 203

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the data-colonialism frame: raw data expropriated as a byproduct mirrors cheap extraction of natural resources from the Global South. Connects to the book’s earlier framing of connection infrastructures as extraction machines.
• SHARE: The India stat on buying 100,000-person lists for under $250 is exactly the kind of concrete figure worth sending to anyone writing or teaching about data governance.