Introduction
The revolution brought by AI is all-pervasive and hard to ignore. Artificial Intelligence has slowly started evolving from being a figment of every technologically inclined person to something that every individual across the globe can utilize. The bedrock of artificial intelligence is based on the large amounts of data that it consumes to facilitate its usage. AI models, especially those based on machine learning, consume a significant amount of data, which is collected from a variety of sources.
Although the advantages of AI are widely celebrated, a less-examined aspect that is its hidden ecological impact is rarely talked about. In India, where swift digital advancement collides with urgent sustainability issues, these concealed expenses pose significant legal and ethical dilemmas.
What is Data Scraping?
‘AI Data Scraping’ refers to the process of using artificial intelligence to automatically extract large amounts of data from websites or other digital sources.[1] Before the rise of AI, this particular method was simply termed as ‘web scraping’ or ‘data scraping. Artificial Intelligence empowers sophisticated models to effectively collect data from websites or other online sources, hence adapting to the evolving digital landscapes.
AI-based systems can analyze, classify, and even forecast trends from the data they gather rather than just accumulating static information. For instance, natural language processing models learn linguistic nuances from billions of sentences gathered from the internet. Similarly, computer vision applications depend on vast image datasets scraped from social media and photography websites to train models for facial recognition, object detection, and medical diagnostics. However, this practice often leads to personal data privacy breaches, as users may unknowingly share data without explicit consent.[2] The scale of data scraping is vast, with AI training datasets totaling terabytes or even petabytes of information.
Environmental Impact of AI
The amount of environmental destruction that occurs due to the usage of AI could be viewed through a dual lens- namely, the adverse impact of AI in its energy consumption and also the generation of vast amounts of electronic waste.
Energy Consumption
The amount of energy taken by generative AI Machines to create the data is staggering. Natural resources are being harmed in return. As news of natural disasters in every shape and form has already become a natural occurrence in the daily news, humanity must recognize the adverse effects of generative AI, in its entirety.Most large-scale AI deployments are housed in data centers, including those operated by cloud service providers. These data centers can take a heavy toll on the planet. The electronics they house rely on a staggering amount of grist: making a 2 kg computer requires 800kg of raw materials.[3]
The environmental impact of AI extends beyond high electricity usage. AI models consume enormous amounts of fossil-fuel-based electricity, significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The need for advanced cooling systems in AI data centers also leads to excessive water consumption, which can have serious environmental consequences in regions experiencing water scarcity.[4]
Electronic Waste
The swift advancement of AI hardware causes regular upgrades and the disposal of obsolete parts, adding to electronic waste (e-waste). AI-specific hardware, like specialized chips and servers, tends to have a lifecycle that is often shorter than that of consumer electronics because of the rapid technological progress and rising computational needs.
E-waste includes toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, creating dangers to water, soil, and human health when not disposed of correctly. India, as one of the top producers of e-waste, encounters difficulties in efficiently handling this waste due to unregulated recycling practices and gaps in legislation. The E-Waste Management Rules, 2016 provide a legal framework aimed at responsible disposal and recycling but lack AI-specific provisions, leaving environmental harms from AI hardware largely unaddressed. [5]
Legal & Ethical Issues Surrounding AI Data Scraping in India
Stretching beyond the disastrous environmental effects left by generative AI, it also raises important and pressing issues on data privacy, consent to share data as well as data ownership. Section 43 of the IT Act [6] states that if any person, without the consent of the owner or person in charge of a computer, computer system, or network, accesses, tampers with, damages, or interferes with the data or functionality of such system, they shall be liable to pay compensation by way of damages to the affected person under Section 43 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
However, the legality of data scraping when involving personal data remains ambiguous and vague at best. Web data scraping often occurs without explicit consent from data subjects, creating potential conflicts with privacy laws. Furthermore, the DPDPA lacks detailed provisions addressing automated data collection methods, leaving a regulatory gap. [7]
Ethically, scraping vast amounts of data without users’ knowledge challenges principles of informed consent and autonomy. Individuals may unknowingly contribute their data to train AI models, with little control over its use or protection against misuse. This raises questions about fairness, transparency, and accountability. Who owns the scraped data? What rights do data subjects retain? How can scraping be conducted ethically without compromising AI innovation? These questions remain largely unsettled in Indian legal debates. [8]
India finds itself at a fork in the road where the imperative of harnessing the potential of AI needs to be balanced with the imperatives of protecting the environment and the rights of individuals.The legal system in India to govern scraping and AI-related environmental concerns is still in its infancy. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA), is the first major legislation related to the protection of personal data in India. The Act declares the processing of personal data unlawful without explicit consent. Under the Act, data fiduciaries have the responsibility to provide data security and accountability. Nevertheless, the Act fails to provide any clear explanation or regulation for the use of data scraping technology, including the scraping of publicly available data on the web, especially for the training of AI software. This has raised ambiguous conditions under which data scraping could be exempt from consent laws, violating data privacy rights.
At the same time, the existing environmental legislations in India under the Environment Protection Act of 1986 and the E-Waste Management Rules of 2016 primarily pertain to conventional sources of environmental pollution and harmful materials in the environment but did not have provisions addressing virtual sources of environmental externalities such as the use of AI in terms of its carbon footprint and equipment obsolescence rates, so far as the growing use of data Centers and hardware of AI systems in India is a concern that accentuates increased energy consumption and e-waste production in a way that remains insufficiently addressed under the existing legislative regime in India. There exists a pressing need for a legislative overhaul in a way that interlinks the realms of data safeguarding and the need to be environmentally sustainable in India in the coming years.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is at the edge of the future of technology in India, and it holds the promise of revolutionary changes in various sectors. On the other hand, the ‘shadow price’ of artificial intelligence, especially concerning its impact on the environment in the form of massive data ‘scraping,’ is set to give rise to some severe challenges, which the current legal structure in India is ill-equipped to handle. This precarious state of play in the absence of proper data protection laws and ‘green’ laws in place is likely to give precedence to neither privacy concerns nor harmonious coexistence with nature, in the quest for innovative breakthroughs in artificial intelligence in the country. A holistic approach to dealing with both issues is urgently needed, with proper legislations in place to control the trend of ‘data’ scrapping, ‘green’ accountability in ‘AI’ use, and proper ‘AI’ ethics to be pursued so that, in its quest to be at the pinnacle of innovation in artificial intelligence, the country finds itself at the forefront of ‘responsible’ innovation in artificial intelligence.
Author(s) Name: Sanvi Bhagwat (Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law)
References:
[1] Cichocka A, “What Is AI Data Scraping?” (Miquido, January 21, 2025) <https://www.miquido.com/ai-glossary/what-is-ai-data-scraping/> accessed January 11, 2026
[2] Tripathi A, “Balancing Act: Navigating Data Privacy in the Age of AI” Times of India (January 28, 2025) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/techtonic/balancing-act-navigating-data-privacy-in-the-age-of-ai/?utm_source=openai> accessed January 11, 2026
[3] Programme UNE, “AI Has an Environmental Problem. Here’s What the World Can Do about That.” (UNEP) <https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about> accessed January 11, 2026
[4] “Why AI Uses so Much Energy — and What We Can Do about It” (Institute of Energy and the Environment, April 8, 2025) <https://iee.psu.edu/news/blog/why-ai-uses-so-much-energy-and-what-we-can-do-about-it> accessed January 11, 2026
[5] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, E-Waste Management Rules 2016
[6] Information Technology Act 2000, s 43
[7] ‘Text and Data Mining vs. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: A Critical Study of the Legal Gap and Its Implications for AI Governance’ (Bridge Counsels, 11 September 2025) <https://bridgecounsels.com/text-and-data-mining-vs-indias-digital-personal-data-protection-act-2023-a-critical-study-of-the-legal-gap-and-its-implications-for-ai-governance/> accessed 17 January 2026
[8] ‘Scraping the Surface: The Legal Grey Zone of Web Scraping in AI Development’ (Legal Service India – Articles, 7 July 2025) <https://www.legalserviceindia.com/Legal-Articles/scraping-the-surface-the-legal-grey-zone-of-web-scraping-in-ai-development/> accessed 17 January 2026
