An ethnographic study from the London School of Economics has drawn attention to how everyday surveillance technologies shape safety and social relations inside India’s gated communities. Snigdha Adil’s insightful dissertation, selected for the Media@LSE MSc Dissertation Series, is based on fieldwork in a Noida housing society. This focused, grounded approach allows for a detailed look at how platforms such as MyGate function in practice.
MyGate, WhatsApp and the Making of ‘Safety’
Through interviews and observation, the research shows how resident posts on WhatsApp groups about theft or “banned” workers, combined with MyGate ratings, flagging and photo displays at gates, help circulate fear that attaches to domestic and service staff. The study describes the emergence of what Adil terms “criminal Others” — often workers — set against “like-minded insiders” among residents. Expressions of care by some residents, such as monitoring a worker’s movements, frequently reinforce patterns of control rather than easing them.
The dissertation also notes fragmented use of these tools. Some residents bypass MyGate notifications due to overload and rely on intercoms or paper registers, while guards often input data without fully understanding the system. Parallel analogue and digital records create opacity that limits accountability while sustaining everyday surveillance.
Data Rights Under the DPDP Act
These ground-level practices intersect directly with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Adil observed opaque data collection, resident ratings that can affect workers’ future employment opportunities, and hybrid paper-digital record-keeping systems with unclear retention practices. The DPDP Act now raises specific questions about consent for visitor and staff data, purpose limitation, and the rights of individuals who are not residents but whose personal information is routinely processed by RWAs and community platforms.
Implications for Policing and Urban Governance
For law enforcement and urban administration, the findings highlight practical intersections. Private platforms generate detailed movement logs and threat narratives that can influence community complaints and security expectations. As gated communities expand across the NCR and other cities, questions around data sharing between RWAs, apps and police, along with verification processes, may be needed to balance security requirements with privacy safeguards.
This article draws on Adil’s ethnographic study. Perspectives from RWAs or platform providers were not included in the original research. It suggests that RWAs, platform companies and regulators would benefit from examining how these systems actually operate on the ground before finalising data governance practices.
