As India’s digital economy accelerates, industry leaders underline that privacy is no longer a regulatory checkbox, but the foundation of trust, resilience, and sustainable innovation.
As India moves deeper into an AI-driven, cloud-first, and data-intensive economy, the question of how personal and enterprise data is protected has never been more critical. From financial systems and healthcare platforms to e-commerce, social media, and emerging agentic AI applications, data now powers almost every aspect of modern life.
Data Privacy Day 2026 arrives at a defining moment. With the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) now shaping regulatory expectations, enterprises are being challenged to rethink how they collect, process, store, and govern information. Cyber threats are growing more sophisticated, AI systems are handling unprecedented volumes of sensitive data, and digital trust has become a decisive competitive differentiator. To mark this occasion, leading voices from the IT industry have shared their perspectives with DT on why privacy must move from policy to practice, and from compliance to culture.
As organizations embrace AI, cloud, and digital-first operating models, data security is becoming central to business strategy. Explaining how privacy and cybersecurity must be embedded into enterprise systems from the ground up, Sunil Sharma, Managing Director & VP – Sales (India & SAARC), Sophos, says, “Data Privacy Day 2026 is a timely reminder that data protection has become a fundamental business priority, not just a regulatory obligation. As organisations increasingly adopt AI, cloud, and digital-first operating models, the volume and sensitivity of data being created and processed continues to grow, making it an attractive target for cybercriminals.”
He further adds, “In this context, systems must incorporate privacy and cybersecurity by design, bolstered by robust governance, ongoing monitoring, and swift incident response. Equally important is building a culture of accountability and awareness across the organisation, because technology alone cannot address data risk. Organisations that prioritise data privacy and security will be better positioned to earn trust, meet compliance requirements, and drive sustainable digital growth.”
Addressing preparedness and recovery in cyber resilience, Venkat Sitaram Senior Director & Country Head ISG (Infrastructure Solutions Group), Dell Technologies India, says, “Dell Technologies’ recent work with the Cyber Security Association of India highlights a growing resilience debt across enterprises, where perceived readiness often masks real gaps in recovery capability. On Data Privacy Day 2026, it is important to recognise that privacy and recovery are deeply connected. As cyber incidents grow more sophisticated, the real test for organisations is not just preventing breaches, but ensuring they can recover quickly from clean, trusted data. Building cyber resilience through isolation, immutability and intelligent recovery is no longer optional. It is essential to protecting data integrity, maintaining trust and safeguarding business continuity in a digital-first India.”
Sharing insights from global threat intelligence, Jaydeep Singh, General Manager for India, Kaspersky, says, “At Kaspersky, Data Privacy Day 2026 is an important reminder of just how much personal data has become part of everyday digital life. With more connected devices, cloud services, and AI-powered tools around us, we're all sharing more information than ever, often without really knowing where it ends up or how well it's being protected.”
He further added, “What we see through our ongoing threat intelligence and research is clear: personal data is still one of the top targets for cybercriminals. That's why we see data privacy and cybersecurity as two sides of the same coin. Protecting your data isn't just about meeting regulations; it's about safeguarding identities, building trust, and making sure people can use technology with confidence.”
“Data Privacy Day is also a call to action. Privacy needs to be built into products and services from the ground up, backed by transparency and responsible practices. At Kaspersky, we're committed to helping people and organizations move from awareness to action through strong security solutions, practical guidance, and our ongoing work toward a safer, more privacy-respecting digital world,” he concluded.
Addressing privacy at the infrastructure layer in AI-driven environments, Amit Luthra, Managing Director, Lenovo ISG India, says, "Data Privacy Day is a timely reminder that as organizations deploy AI at scale, privacy can no longer sit on the sidelines. AI changes how data is used, not just where it is stored. With real-time inferencing now running across data centers, cloud environments, and the edge, privacy risks surface in how data is processed and acted upon. As AI moves into live, operational settings, often involving sensitive or regulated data, privacy has to be addressed at the infrastructure level. At Lenovo, this is reflected in how we design AI platforms for inferencing, with security, resilience, and validation built into the system from the outset. By enabling AI workloads to run securely where data already resides, whether in the data center or at the edge, organizations can reduce exposure while maintaining performance and control.”
He further added, “A hybrid approach makes this practical. It supports regulatory requirements, limits unnecessary data movement, and allows AI to be deployed with confidence. When privacy is treated as part of infrastructure design, trust follows naturally.”
Examining emerging risks in agentic AI and quantum-era threats, Sharda Tickoo, Country Manager for India and SAARC, Trend Micro, says, “Data Privacy Day 2026 arrives at a critical inflection point. Evolving from a compliance obligation, privacy has become the foundation of trust in an AI-driven economy. As organizations deploy agentic AI systems that autonomously process, analyse, and act on personal data, the stakes have fundamentally changed. Data privacy now directly impacts business continuity, competitive advantage, and digital sovereignty. Deepfakes bypass authentication systems we've trusted for years. They manipulate AI assistants embedded in workflows to exfiltrate sensitive information. With quantum computing emerging as the next powerful weapon adversaries can wield, malicious actors are stealing encrypted data today to deploy quantum technology and decrypt it tomorrow making traditional defences irrelevant when the attack surface includes every AI model, API endpoint, and automated decision.”
He further stated, “Strengthening data protection requires three decisive actions. First, embed privacy into AI lifecycles from design through deployment. Implementing robust access controls for training data, model parameters, and inference endpoints. Second, adopt continuous monitoring that tracks data access patterns, detects unauthorized AI processing, and flags when systems operate beyond consented purposes. Third, ensure transparency and explainability in AI decision-making so organizations can demonstrate compliance and build stakeholder trust.”
He added, “Future-forward organizations should treat data privacy not as constraint but as competitive weapon, building trust competitors cannot replicate and unlocking responsible innovation.”
Highlighting operational discipline and leadership accountability, Subhalakshmi Ganapathy, Chief IT Security Evangelist, ManageEngine, Zoho Corp., says, “Data Privacy Day 2026 comes at a moment when Indian organisations are being tested not by intent, but by execution. With the DPDP Act raising the bar on consent, accountability, and breach readiness, privacy can no longer sit with legal teams alone, it must be enforced through everyday IT and security controls. The rapid deployment of AI, automation, and distributed work models has expanded identity sprawl, data access points, and shadow repositories. In this environment, over-collection and indefinite retention of data are no longer just inefficiencies, they are liabilities.”
“Enterprises must adopt disciplined data governance by default: purpose-based access, continuous privilege audits, and systematic elimination of redundant data. Privacy-by-design is ultimately a leadership decision. Organisations that treat privacy as a core operating principle, not a compliance milestone, will build durable digital trust, respond faster to regulatory scrutiny, and create resilient systems that can scale responsibly in an AI-driven economy,” he stated.
With data flowing rapidly across hybrid environments and digital platforms, controlling access and detecting misuse has become increasingly complex. Elaborating on the importance of visibility and behavioural intelligence, Dipesh Kaura, Country Director – India & SAARC, Securonix, says, “Data Privacy Day is a clear reminder that privacy is only as strong as your ability to see and control who touches your data. Protecting sensitive information means continuously monitoring access, understanding behavior, and stopping misuse before it becomes a breach. At Securonix, our Unified Defense SIEM with agentic AI unifies advanced behavioral analytics, curated threat intelligence, and autonomous response to reduce risk, accelerate investigations, and keep critical data secure.
He further added, “By enabling proactive detection and rapid response at scale, we help organizations safeguard sensitive information, maintain compliance, and preserve trust in an increasingly complex digital world. On Data Privacy Day, the real question every organization must answer is simple: do you truly know who has your data and can you prove it?”
As enterprises modernise their infrastructure to support data-intensive workloads, storage and governance are emerging as pillars of privacy protection. Highlighting the role of secure and controllable data environments, Matthew Oostveen, VP & CTO, Asia Pacific & Japan, Pure Storage, says, “Data Privacy Day is a reminder that privacy is fundamentally about trust and how responsibly organizations protect and control the data they are entrusted with. As data volumes grow and regulations evolve, privacy can no longer be addressed through policy alone. It must be built into the way data is stored, accessed, and governed across the enterprise. In India, the introduction of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act), marks a significant step forward, placing sharper focus on accountability, consent, and responsible data stewardship for organizations operating in an increasingly digital economy.”
He noted, “Strong data privacy begins with secure foundations. Built-in encryption and robust key management play a critical role in protecting sensitive information at rest, supporting privacy objectives, and enabling organizations to manage regulated and mission-critical data with confidence. As regulatory frameworks such as the DPDP Act, GDPR, and DORA continue to raise expectations around accountability and resilience, maintaining clear ownership and control of data has become essential.
This Data Privacy Day, organizations should recognize that lasting trust is built not only through how data is used, but through how securely it is protected and how firmly they remain in control of it.”
As enterprises face new AI and cyber risks, aligning privacy with cybersecurity is essential. Drew Bagley, VP and Counsel, Privacy and Cyber Policy, CrowdStrike, says, “Data Privacy Day is a reminder that privacy and cybersecurity rise or fall together, and those strategies must always be aligned. With AI becoming embedded across the enterprise and driving workflows, and constant data movement, we almost take for granted the new paradigm for access to and sharing of data. But real protection depends on visibility, privacy by design, and resilience that operates in real time.”
On embedding privacy into practical solutions for Indian businesses, Dr. Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director, Quick Heal Technologies, says, "This Data Privacy Day is a reminder that as India’s digital economy grows, personal data has become central to every business and increasingly vulnerable to misuse. Data privacy today is not just about technology. It is about trust, accountability, and how responsibly organisations handle information that people share with them. We have built an indigenous solution, Seqrite Data Privacy, with capabilities designed for the realities of Indian organisations, helping startups, small and medium businesses, and large enterprises embed privacy into their day-to-day operations. Our focus has been to make data protection practical, scalable, and aligned with the intent of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act.”
He further stated, “As a responsible cybersecurity leader, we believe clarity is as important as capability. That is why we have created a dedicated DPDP Act resource page on the Seqrite website, bringing together clear explanations of data privacy, the DPDP Act, its impact on organisations, and how it can be adopted in practice. We invite businesses, practitioners, and stakeholders to explore these insights, deepen their understanding, and engage with us as India collectively builds a safer and more trusted digital ecosystem.”
With ransomware, outages, and operational disruptions increasing globally, resilience has become inseparable from privacy. Stressing the need for secure, compliant, and recoverable systems, Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director – India & SAARC, Veeam Software, says, “This Data Privacy Week is a timely reminder that data control is at the heart of trust, resilience, and safe AI adoption. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, an organisation’s ability to govern, protect, and recover its data is becoming just as critical as its ability to secure it. Trusted, well-managed data is the bedrock for regulatory confidence, operational continuity, and responsible AI innovation.
He further highlighted that data governance and recoverability are critical pillars of operational and AI resilience. “Veeam’s latest ransomware research underscores this urgency with 69% of impacted organisations experienced multiple attacks in a single year, and 90% had their backups targeted. This highlights how fragmented visibility and weak data governance leave businesses dangerously exposed. Without clear oversight of where data resides, how it is protected, and how quickly it can be restored, organisations risk not only breaches but prolonged and costly disruptions.”
“In India, with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act now in effect and further regulatory changes ahead, businesses must move beyond reactive cybersecurity. They need to embed data control, governance, and resilience into their core strategies. Ensuring data is secure, compliant, and recoverable is no longer optional; it is essential for responsible AI adoption and long-term business success,” he concluded.
As organizations rely more heavily on data-driven insights and automation, trust in data is becoming a foundation for innovation. Emphasising the importance of resilient data ecosystems, Rick Vanover, VP of Product Strategy, Veeam Software, says, “True data resilience starts with trust and control. As we mark Data Privacy Week, we must empower organizations to take charge of their data - protecting privacy, ensuring security, and unlocking value at every turn. In today’s digital era, trusted data is the cornerstone of both privacy and progress. Organizations that ensure their data is secure, governed, and trustworthy lay the foundation not only for compliance, but also for safe AI adoption and transformative business outcomes. Let’s recognize that empowering organizations with trusted data is what enables innovation, builds resilience, and unlocks the true promise of AI for our businesses and society. And should things not go as planned, organizations should have the confidence in resilience technology and practices to keep the business running."
With enterprises operating across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, managing privacy risks has become increasingly challenging. Explaining the need to embed privacy into core data strategies, Sanjay Agrawal, Head Presales and CTO, Hitachi Vantara India and SAARC, and Chair of SNIA, says, “As Indian enterprises scale AI and operate across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, data privacy has become a core business resilience and trust priority, not just a compliance requirement. Industry research indicates that over half of Indian IT leaders see data security gaps as the biggest barrier to scaling AI, while a significant proportion remain concerned about AI-enabled data breaches. With India’s data protection framework now in force, organizations must move beyond perimeter-based controls to protection by design, where privacy, security, availability and governance are built directly into the data infrastructure.”
He concludes by stressing that, “In this environment, outages, ransomware incidents, and data loss events can carry the same regulatory and reputational impact as traditional data breaches. Recent report shows that the average cost of a data breach in India has reached ₹220 million, reinforcing that resilience failures are now a material business risk.
As India advances its digital and AI agenda, the sustained focus should be on building privacy-aware, intelligence-led data architectures that combine immutable protection, real-time threat detection, and strong data governance. Enterprises that embed privacy into the core of their data strategy will be best positioned to scale AI responsibly, meet evolving regulations and sustain long-term customer trust.”
Highlighting how trusted data accelerates business impact, Shiva Pillay, SVP and GM Americas, Veeam Software, says, “Data Privacy Week 2026 is a powerful reminder that taking control of your data is more than a security imperative, it’s a business accelerator. When organizations build trust in their data and embrace safe AI, they unlock new levels of agility, customer confidence, and competitive edge. Trusted data fuels smarter decisions, resilient operations, and innovation that drives real business outcomes. The companies who get this right won’t just keep pace - they’ll lead the way.”
With cybercriminals increasingly using AI to scale and automate attacks, traditional security models are being challenged. Highlighting the need for proactive prevention, Bernard Montel, Field CTO, Tenable, says, “This Data Privacy Day, protecting personal data is about more than compliance; it’s about defending freedom and privacy. As scams and extortion exploit exposed information, data leaks are causing real-world harm. With cybercriminals weaponising AI, attacks are becoming faster, smarter and harder to detect. At the same time, companies are adopting agentic AI, introducing a new risk: digital identities acting independently within sensitive systems. Effective governance now demands visibility into machine behaviour, not just human access. To combat these emerging challenges, businesses must invest in identity governance. Compliance should also be the baseline, with prevention and resilience built in from day one.”
With digital services operating at machine speed across global networks, security and privacy must evolve accordingly. Explaining the importance of secure-by-design architectures, Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology & Strategy, Akamai Technologies, says, “In 2026, Data Privacy Day is a reminder that in an AI-driven world where data is the new precious commodity, privacy continues to be a critical and continuous responsibility. As data moves across cloud platforms, APIs, and intelligent systems at machine speed, our ability to discover and secure data must move even faster. At Akamai, we know this starts with deep visibility and granular network segmentation to effectively shrink the blast radius of any breach. Real-time threat intelligence also provides organizations with an edge to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats. By embedding privacy-by-design into AI deployments and leveraging automated, distributed defenses, organizations can innovate at speed and maintain consumer trust, while navigating an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape.”
On operationalizing privacy at scale across cloud ecosystems, Balaji Rao, Area Vice President, India & SAARC, Commvault, says, “Data Privacy Day 2026 highlights a hard truth for enterprises operating in a cloud-dominated economy. Data privacy now defines operational credibility, regulatory readiness, and long-term competitiveness. As India advances its data-centric digital ecosystem, privacy by design has moved from principle to performance requirement across SaaS platforms, multi-cloud environments, and AI-driven workflows.”
He explains, “The Digital Personal Data Protection Act further reinforces this shift by requiring continuous accountability across the data lifecycle. Regulatory readiness depends on real-time visibility, policy-driven governance, and resilient recovery in environments where data and identities are highly distributed. Identity resilience plays a critical role by enabling real-time visibility, response, and recovery across identity providers, ensuring uninterrupted access while limiting exposure and operational risk. Today, nine out of ten attacks target identity systems like AD because they control access to data, systems, and applications
“Enterprises that architect privacy and resilience directly into cloud data platforms establish a durable foundation for compliance and business continuity. Data protection strategies must evolve at the same pace as digital transformation. Organizations that operationalize privacy at scale will set the benchmark for trust, resilience, and responsible growth in India’s digital economy,” he stated.
With real-time engagement, IoT, and AI reshaping digital interactions, safeguarding data has become an ecosystem-wide responsibility. Emphasising proactive privacy measures, Ranga Jagannath, Senior Director, Growth, Agora, says, “As technologies like AI, IoT, and Real-Time Engagement redefine the way we interact, the volume of personal data being generated is enormous. While this volume of data promotes innovation, it also poses significant risks to individual privacy and security. The challenge today is not only about compliance but about building a digital ecosystem where privacy is an intrinsic part of every user connection.”
He emphasizes, “Businesses must adopt privacy-by-design principles, ensuring that data protection is an integral part of their solutions. This includes implementing secure APIs, end-to-end encryption, and adhering to the highest standards of transparency and user control. However, meeting these standards requires more than just regulatory compliance. It requires proactive measures to stay ahead of emerging threats and an unwavering commitment to privacy.”
Focusing on embedding privacy into AI and automation systems, Vaibhav Tare, Chief Information Security Officer, Fulcrum Digital, says, “Data privacy has become a foundational pillar of digital trust, especially as enterprises accelerate AI adoption. In India’s evolving data protection landscape, organisations must move beyond checkbox compliance and build privacy into the design of their systems, processes, and AI models. Managing privacy risks in an era of automation requires strong governance, accountable leadership, and a clear balance between innovation and responsible data use. Enterprises that prioritise transparency and secure data practices will be best positioned to earn consumer confidence and sustain long-term growth in an AI-first economy.”
As data breaches continue to cause financial and reputational damage, structured security strategies are becoming essential. Highlighting the need for enterprise-wide protection frameworks, Chetan Jain, Cofounder & Managing Director, Inspira Enterprise, says, "With a steep spike in data breaches and privacy violations, businesses have to protect the sensitive data of their customers and proprietary information for operations to avoid massive financial losses, customer churn, and reputational damage. At Inspira, we build a robust and tailored data privacy strategy, enabling organizations to proactively address privacy risks, satisfy regulatory requirements, and demonstrate commitment to privacy to all stakeholders. Furthermore, we provide customized recommendations to balance data privacy with business needs. The global celebration of Data Privacy Day on January 28 every year is a reminder for businesses to dedicate themselves to implementing robust data privacy policies to safeguard customer trust and ensure compliance while making provisions for future changes."
Highlighting cloud responsibility and privacy-by-design, Rahul S. Kurkure, Founder & Director, Cloud.in, says, "As Indian enterprises accelerate their shift to cloud-first and AI-driven environments, they benefit from greater agility, scalability, and cost efficiency. However, this transition also increases data privacy risks due to the shared nature of cloud infrastructure. Data Privacy Day is a timely reminder that organizations must clearly understand and own their responsibilities within the shared responsibility model—especially as sensitive data moves across platforms, partners, and borders. Privacy cannot be treated as a compliance exercise alone; it must be embedded by design into cloud architectures without weakening security or operational performance. At Cloud.in, we focus on building privacy-driven cloud architectures that help Indian organizations establish digital trust, meet evolving regulatory expectations, and support long-term, sustainable growth."
Focusing on long-term resilience, Vaibhav Patkar, Risk & Security Solutions Advisor, Orient Technologies Limited, says, “On Data Privacy Day, the conversation goes beyond compliance to how organizations build long-term trust and resilience in a digital-first economy. As enterprises scale cloud adoption and deploy AI across operations, managing cyber threats effectively becomes critical to protecting business continuity and stakeholder confidence. A comprehensive security approach, spanning cloud, endpoint, and network environments, combined with real-time monitoring and AI-driven incident response, enables organizations to stay ahead of evolving risks. Aligning security practices with global standards not only strengthens privacy and governance, but also empowers businesses to innovate securely and sustainably.”
Emphasising proactive governance and innovation, Tejesh Kodali, Group Chairman, Blue Cloud Softech Solutions Limited, says, “Data Privacy Day reflects the vision that inspired me to build solutions focused on trust, resilience, and responsible innovation. As AI and digital systems become integral to business, data protection must be embedded into strategy, not treated as an afterthought. By adopting proactive, intelligence-driven security and strong governance, organizations can safeguard sensitive information, meet regulatory expectations, and scale innovation with confidence.”
On privacy as a core pillar of digital payments, Prakash Ravindran, CEO & Director, InstiFi, says, "Data privacy has become a critical pillar of the digital payments ecosystem. With increasing reliance on online transactions, the responsibility to protect sensitive financial and business data has never been greater. For fintech platforms, privacy-by-design and compliance-driven frameworks are essential to maintaining trust and minimising operational risk. Strong data protection practices enable merchants and users to engage confidently with digital systems. At InstiFi, data security is embedded across our technology and processes, reflecting the expectations of a maturing digital economy. As adoption continues to grow, consistent focus on privacy and accountability will shape how digital payments earn and sustain trust going forward."
On trust and compliance in communications platforms, Harsha Solanki, VP GM Asia, Infobip, says, “As digital engagement continues to scale, data privacy is no longer just a compliance requirement, but a core trust imperative. For Indian companies, it has entrenched firmly on the risk agenda, with more than 79% of consumers saying they would disengage from a brand if they do not trust how their data is handled. This growing focus on trust is also reflected in India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules 2025, which bring clearer expectations around how personal data is handled and protected.”
Explaining the role of digital infrastructure in privacy governance, Narendra Sen, Founder & CEO, RackBank & NeevCloud, says, “Today's data Privacy depends on digital infrastructure. The adoption of cloud technology, development of artificial intelligence workloads and the increasing number of countries proposing localisation legislation to control how information is stored and protected. The creation of modern, safe and secure data center facilities allows businesses and governments to create trust around digital information through maintaining location of data within controls and resilience against human error.”
He further noted, “The Indian regulatory environment in the future must have businesses developing future focused solutions that combine technical innovation and privacy. Purpose-built, safe, secure data centre systems are available to provide businesses and governments the ability to keep sensitive data secure while providing modern innovative digital services. The responsibility for how to develop digital trust and maintain governance of that trust will be reliant on strong leadership from the public and private sector and the quality of the infrastructure developed in support of them.”
With agentic AI and automation platforms processing massive volumes of sensitive information, new categories of privacy risk are emerging. Explaining why privacy must be built into intelligent systems, Peter White, Chief Product Officer, Automation Anywhere, says, “As agentic systems operate with increasing autonomy and process unprecedented volumes of sensitive data, privacy is no longer optional. It is core infrastructure for responsible AI and automation. Embedding security and privacy by design at the architectural level is a critical element that will define systems which can scale from pilots to real-world operational usage. When privacy and security are built-in, organizations can move fast without breaking trust and introducing unnecessary risks.”
On privacy-engineered software development, Naresh Agarwal, SVP, Engineering, India, Harness, says, “In 2026, Data Privacy Day has moved beyond observance to accountability. We’re at an inflection point where data is fueling AI systems, autonomous agents, and machine-speed decision-making. As AI becomes embedded across everyday products and services, data now flows through far more complex environments like cloud-native architectures, APIs, software supply chains, and AI pipelines. This is helping businesses build and ship software faster, with more automation and efficiency. But the same capabilities are also being used by attackers at scale. Threats are becoming more targeted, convincing, and harder to detect. In this environment, security and privacy can’t be an afterthought. They have to be engineered into how software is built and operated.”
As generative AI adoption accelerates across enterprises, the threat of unintended data exposure is rising rapidly. Warning organizations about emerging vulnerabilities, Pratik Shah, Managing Director – India & SAARC, F5, says, “As organizations integrate generative AI, the risk of sensitive data leaks has shifted from a possibility to a near certainty. Traditional security systems simply cannot manage the unpredictable nature of AI models. To use this technology responsibly, enterprises must implement real-time AI guardrails proactive controls that provide a safety net across the entire AI lifecycle. By automating data protection, we empower businesses to innovate rapidly without compromising user privacy or regulatory compliance. We are building a future where AI is inherently secure, protecting the digital trust of every citizen and enterprise in the country.”
As digital platforms collect and process vast amounts of consumer information, accountability has become critical. Explaining how organizations must take ownership of data protection, Raghavendra Singh, CTO, Cashify, says, “Data collection today has become a default of the digital economy. Whether it's social media, shopping platforms or AI tools, the responsibility of protecting privacy increasingly becomes the responsibility of the user. As a result, privacy today is shaped as much by individual awareness as it is by regulation. This challenge compounds in electronics and recommerce, where devices can carry years of personal, financial and biometric data. As trust and participation in the recommerce sector scale, so does exposure. Many users still underestimate how much data remains on their devices and are often unaware of the secure erasure methods available that can eliminate these risks.”
“Frameworks like India’s DPDP Act are an important step in establishing accountability, but data privacy in practice depends on how systems are designed. Data privacy in device reuse cannot be left to users to navigate on their own. It needs to be treated as a default responsibility of the systems and processes that enable recommerce. At Cashify, we treat data safety as a system responsibility. Every device undergoes factory-grade data erasure, using specialised tools and processes. As recommerce adoption grows, we continue to strengthen this infrastructure with next-generation systems to make these processes more robust and scalable,” he said.
As India’s regulatory framework continues to evolve under the DPDP Act, organizations are being pushed to redesign digital foundations. Pointing out the need for privacy-first architecture, Avaneesh Kumar Vats, Vice President – Information Technology, Techno Digital, says, “As India advances into DPDP Act’s next phase, enterprises must re-architect digital foundations with privacy as a core design principle, not a compliance afterthought. With cloud scale exploding, AI workloads surging (26% of firms AI-mature), and data sovereignty demands rising, privacy outcomes hinge on upstream infrastructure: where data resides, flows, and is governed across distributed environments.”
He stated, “At Techno Digital, we embed privacy-first infrastructure for sustainable growth. India’s data centers jumping 66% to 1.5 GW by 2026 amid $3.8B investments and a digital economy eyeing 20% of GDP by 2030, handle exploding AI data layers like prompts, logs, and inferences. Enterprises demand visibility, control, auditability, and local protection in hyperscale/edge setups exactly what our designs deliver. In this new regime, organizations investing in privacy-first architectures, granular data controls, auditable data flows, and sovereign infrastructure will not only stay compliant but gain customer trust, regulatory resilience, and competitive advantage in India’s data-driven economy.”
“As India emerges as a digital superpower, trust defines success. Resilient infrastructure enforcing privacy-by-default will power this $100B+ decade of innovation. Our commitment: confident scaling with privacy in the backbone,” he added.
Highlighting the foundation of trust in digital connectivity, Dr. Sarath Kumar, Chief Technology Officer, ACT Fibernet, says, "With the growing dependence on digital devices across Indian households and enterprises, digital infrastructure today is fundamentally built on data privacy, which forms the foundation of trust across the digital ecosystem. With increasing cyberattacks in India have led to a greater focus and urgency on establishing strong data protection measures to protect individuals and businesses from both evolving threats to their privacy and disruption of their operations."
He further added, "The future of data privacy will be defined by resilience. Today, consumers and businesses expect connectivity that protects their data as they connect. Embedding privacy-led resilience into digital infrastructure enables long-term trust, regulatory confidence, and sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving landscape of cyber threats and regulatory demands faced by both consumers and businesses."
The Road Ahead
Data Privacy Day 2026 reflects a decisive shift in India’s digital journey. Privacy is no longer confined to legal teams or compliance departments. It now sits at the intersection of leadership, technology, governance, and corporate culture.
As enterprises scale AI, cloud, and automation, the message from industry leaders is clear. Sustainable growth will belong to organizations that treat privacy not as a regulatory burden, but as a strategic promise.
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