Hyderabad Malkajgiri police collect data on 63,000 domestic workers, deny privacy concerns

The Malkajgiri Police Commissionerate in Hyderabad has collected extensive personal data from over 63,000 domestic workers, ranging from Aadhaar numbers and bank account details to the geographic coordinates of workers’ homes, as part of a background verification initiative. 

The initiative, called Mee Suraksha, was launched on May 16 and is aimed at creating a database of domestic workers and other service providers to help police verify their backgrounds and investigate crimes. The scope of the data collection has, however, drawn questions from digital rights activists. 

The workers’ details, currently collected through a Google Form and soon to be migrated to a dedicated Mee Suraksha app, span 54 fields. These include Aadhaar IDs, the police station closest to their native place, bank account details, UPI ID, whether they receive wages in cash or through online transfers, the kind of phone they use (smart phone or not), social media accounts, and the geographic coordinates of their present address. 

The Mee Suraksha app, which is yet to be made publicly available, states that it is compliant with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. 

According to Malkajgiri Police Commissioner B Sumathi, the verification exercise does not violate privacy laws because participation is voluntary. She also said not all 54 fields in the form needed to be mandatorily filled. 

However, the Google form reviewed by TNM shows that while details such as caste, social media accounts, an alternate phone number used for WhatsApp, UPI ID, and ID proof are optional, several other fields are mandatory. These include the worker’s nationality, religion, Aadhaar number, bank account number, and the geographic coordinates of their address.