MeitY Probes Pronto Over In-Home Footage Sent to Train Foreign Robots

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has asked home services platforms whether they sell or transfer footage recorded inside Indian homes to physical AI developers abroad. MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan chaired a meeting on November 12 with representatives of Pronto, Urban Company, Snabbit and robotics companies, The Economic Times reported. "Pronto has been asked to submit a detailed representation on its SOPs and data collection practices," a person aware of the meeting told the paper.

What does MeitY want to know?

Pronto's workers wear cameras while performing household chores. The company uses the footage to train AI models for robots. MeitY's questions covered four areas:

• Contracts and retention: what data-sharing contracts companies hold with vendors and clients, and how long they keep data before deletion.
• Data collection and use: how much data is collected, whether recordings link to workers' identities, and the intended use.
• Consent: how companies obtain worker consent and protect privacy of household members and customers in recordings.
• Worker pay: how companies inform workers about recording and how much they pay for it.

After the meeting, Pronto said it "shared its current practices, which are designed to be compliant with applicable regulations."

Some executives at the meeting criticised collecting data in India and selling it to overseas AI developers, saying it "did not put the country in a favourable light." They asked MeitY to regulate such sales. Robotics startups argued India should build its own physical AI capabilities instead of supplying data to foreign companies.

Where could Pronto's footage go?

Pronto's founder and CEO Anjali Sardana launched Provision Labs, a San Francisco-based data company for physical AI, in October. Pronto declined on November 8 to answer Inc42's questions about whether and how the two companies work together. The timeline of Pronto's disclosures has shifted:

• May 2026: an internal memo from investor Glade Brook Capital, first reported by Entrackr, said Pronto was "developing a data business leveraging its workforce to capture real-world household data for robotics labs" and "piloting real-world training data with leading physical AI labs." Pronto confirmed the pilot and said "all footage is deleted within 48 hours."
• May 2026: Pronto's privacy policy, last updated November 2024, allowed indefinite use of data for research and did not mention video recording or AI training.
• July 2026: Pronto converted the pilot into Verified, a paid, opt-in premium service.
• October 2026: Sardana launched Provision Labs, which then said it is acquiring Mumbai-based Basilisk Industries, a builder of hand-tracking and touch-sensing technology for robots. Lachy Groom, co-founder of US startup Physical Intelligence, has invested in both Pronto and Provision Labs.
• November 8, 2026: Pronto said it deletes raw footage after work ends; customers can view an anonymised recording for 48 hours, and "after that, anonymised footage is used for AI training." It did not say who trains on the footage or where.

In May Pronto said it deleted all footage within 48 hours. In November it said it keeps anonymised footage for AI training. Its founder has meanwhile set up a US company in the same business.

What about Urban Company and Snabbit?

Both platforms have decided not to record inside homes, The Economic Times reported. "We do not engage in any such activities, have never done so in the past, and have no plans to do so in the future," Urban Company founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal said. Snabbit ran a one-time assessment in a training centre and stopped; its non-disclosure agreement with robotics data startup Human Archive "did not create or imply any form of commercial or operational relationship," it said.

Why does the law not block this?

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act permits companies to send personal data abroad unless the government restricts a destination country, and it has restricted none so far. The DPDP Rules allow further conditions on transfers, but those obligations take effect only in May 2027. Until then, no Indian law specifically stops companies from sending footage of Indian homes, workers and children to AI developers abroad.

Truly anonymised data falls outside the DPDP Act. Blurring faces does not necessarily make footage of a person's home anonymous. "A monitoring service in the home and the onward sale of footage to third-party AI labs are two distinct purposes," Apar Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation told MediaNama in May. Each purpose requires separate consent, Gupta said, and once footage leaves India, regulators have little say over its use.