What happened

Used to monitor sanitation workers in the city of Chandigarh and six other municipalities in India, HETS comprises watches equipped with GPS trackers, a microphone, a SIM embedded for calling workers, and a camera, enable them to validate proof of attendance, weed out fake, duplicate and false workers, and improve operational efficiencies.

Sanitation workers are forced to wear the watches equipped with HETS so that their movements can be monitored in real-time and pay deducted if they depart from algorithmically pre-determined set work schedules or routes.

Sanitation workers complain they are never provided with information clarifying what the watches do, how they work, or how their data is stored. Neither are they asked to give their consent.

Some sweepers complain the watches are inaccurate, locating them in other cities and resulting in lost wages, and say they must be worn outside work, raising privacy concerns. They must also be charged overnight on their own account. 

Others report feeling giddy after wearing the watches.

According to Krishan Kumar Chadha, the former president of the Chandigarh Sanitation Workers’ Union, turning a tracker off incurs a fine of USD 3 to USD 4, or half a day’s salary, though this is denied by the municipality. Losing a tracker costs a worker USD 107 to USD 134, almost a month’s salary, according to the Chandigarh Sanitation Workers’ Union.

Why it happened 

The root cause of the issue stems from the prioritisation of algorithmic efficiency and productivity tracking over individual privacy and labour protections. 

India’s regulatory frameworks, such as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, focus primarily on traditional cybersecurity and breach notification rather than the operational, ethical, or mental impacts of AI-driven efficiency systems. 

The lack of corporate and product transparency left workers with little insight into how their data was being processed or evaluated, preventing meaningful accountability.