Pronto head-camera data: India's MeitY questions home help apps

What did MeitY ask the companies?

The ministry wants the standard operating procedures each company follows to collect, process and store the data. It also asked how workers' consent is obtained and how the privacy of other people caught on camera is protected. And it asked whether the data is being sold, shared or moved to physical AI developers outside India. Pronto was specifically asked to submit its practices and SOPs.

Some executives at the meeting reportedly argued that India risks becoming a cheap source of training data for foreign AI firms, and should build its own physical AI instead.

How did Pronto's head-camera pilot start?

Pronto confirmed it ran an opt-in pilot in which service professionals filmed chores with worn cameras. It said the option was offered only to customers who chose it when booking, and covered less than 0.01% of users. Raw footage was deleted right after the job, it said, while an anonymised, end-to-end encrypted recording stayed available to the customer for 48 hours. That anonymised footage was then used for AI training, as its terms state.

In July, Pronto turned the experiment into Verified, a premium opt-in service where professionals wear head- or body-mounted cameras. Snabbit said it only ran a limited test in a controlled training centre and dropped the idea. Urban Company founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal said the company does not record inside customers' homes and has no plans to.

Last month Pronto founder Anjali Sardana also launched Provision Labs, a San Francisco-based physical AI venture, and announced it was acquiring Mumbai-based Basilisk Industries. How Pronto's household data relates to Provision Labs is unclear.