DataFolks
The Hidden Lives of Our Digital Self
A book about data and privacy for Indian readers. Not a textbook, a book that uses Indian systems and metaphors to make digital infrastructure legible.
India has the world's largest digital public infrastructure. UPI processes billions of transactions. Aadhaar covers over a billion identities. DigiLocker, CoWIN, ONDC, the India Stack is vast and growing.
Most Indians interact with these systems daily but have no mental model for how they work. What happens when you scan a QR code? Where does your Aadhaar data live? Who can see your UPI transaction history?
These aren't academic questions, they affect 1.4 billion people. DataFolks answers them using Indian systems, Indian metaphors, and Indian stakes.
Table of Contents
Chapters
- 00 Read →
Meeting Your Datafolk
The quiet trail you leave behind every day. Through a simple story of logging into an app, meet the idea of a "datafolk", a digital double assembled from clicks, preferences, and habits.
- 01 Read →
How Datafolk Are Born
From early censuses and punch cards to databases, tracing the origins of data collection. How categorisation creates power and bias, often unintentionally.
- 03 Read →
The Invisible Bazaar
The marketplace where datafolk are valued, traded, and profiled. Ad-tech ecosystems, recommendation systems, and real-time bidding explained through a digital bazaar.
- 04 Read →
Mirrors That Predict
Datafolk encounter their reflections in prediction engines. Machine learning, pattern recognition, and how predictions can reinforce stereotypes and inequalities.
- 05 Read →
When Datafolk Are Copied
Leaks, breaches, identity theft, and deepfakes. What happens when datafolk escape their intended boundaries and take on lives of their own.
- 06 Read →
Shields, Locks, and Disguises
Encryption, anonymisation, permissions, and digital rights. Datafolk learn to protect themselves, privacy is about choosing how and where parts of ourselves are visible.
- 07 Read →
Living With Our Datafolk
What a healthier relationship with data might look like. Data responsibility, regulation, and humane system design, engaging with technology consciously.
Origin
The ISBF Proposal
DataFolks originated as a proposal for the India Science Book Fellowship (ISBF), designed as a book that makes digital infrastructure legible to a general Indian audience. The fellowship supported early research and chapter development, and the project has since expanded beyond that original scope.
All eight chapters are live to read, an early preview while the book goes through an editorial pass ahead of publication. Start from the introduction or jump in anywhere.