/rant
The latest abomination one has to confront in Gurgaon is MyGate.
It is mindboggling how people are so willing to throw their private information at a random information system just because the the guards at a gated complex tell you they can't let you in without this information.
Why do citizens subject themselves to the tyrrany of an app in order to let their guests come and meet them? And why don't guests tell their hosts to "take a hike, come see me outside, because I'm not entering your walled garden at your RWA's terms".
Not too long ago, you would orally tell your name to the guards, they would call your host on the intercom and check if they wanted to allow said guest to enter the complex and meet them or not. Worked fine. If said guest created a nuisance inside the complex, the guards would hold the host liable.
Then people moved to a system where you would have to scribble your name and number on a paper register. You could refuse to provide information, or enter wrong information, because nobody verified.
Now there are long queues outside complexes, as guards collect phone numbers from every delivery person and visitor. OTPs are sent and verified, because the precious diamonds living inside the complex are to be protected from the evil outside world. And yet each apartment seems to require at least a dozen delivery people and service providers every day just to survive.
It is insanity. Recited out in a distinctly American accent by the MyGate app every time a resident receives a visitor. Why that accent? MyGate literally only operates only in India. Were they unable to find a TTS software that uses a localised Indian English accent, let alone use vernacular.
The privacy policy on the MyGate website gives me the chills. The RWA has access to the entire visitor history of every resident for up to 180 days. Every visitor, with validated mobile number, presented in tabular form to the sanghi unclejis who get voted in unopposed year after year (because nobody with a brain and conscience even bothers to stand up against these jobless rabblerousers).
(The MyGate privacy policy also straight up lies. No RWA guard will let you in without verifying your phone number. The app they receive simply does not allow it. Yet the website claims the phone number isn't necessary. Well clearly the foot soldiers aren't being trained in this "feature".)
The latest abomination one has to confront in Gurgaon is MyGate.
It is mindboggling how people are so willing to throw their private information at a random information system just because the the guards at a gated complex tell you they can't let you in without this information.
Why do citizens subject themselves to the tyrrany of an app in order to let their guests come and meet them? And why don't guests tell their hosts to "take a hike, come see me outside, because I'm not entering your walled garden at your RWA's terms".
Not too long ago, you would orally tell your name to the guards, they would call your host on the intercom and check if they wanted to allow said guest to enter the complex and meet them or not. Worked fine. If said guest created a nuisance inside the complex, the guards would hold the host liable.
Then people moved to a system where you would have to scribble your name and number on a paper register. You could refuse to provide information, or enter wrong information, because nobody verified.
Now there are long queues outside complexes, as guards collect phone numbers from every delivery person and visitor. OTPs are sent and verified, because the precious diamonds living inside the complex are to be protected from the evil outside world. And yet each apartment seems to require at least a dozen delivery people and service providers every day just to survive.
It is insanity. Recited out in a distinctly American accent by the MyGate app every time a resident receives a visitor. Why that accent? MyGate literally only operates only in India. Were they unable to find a TTS software that uses a localised Indian English accent, let alone use vernacular.
The privacy policy on the MyGate website gives me the chills. The RWA has access to the entire visitor history of every resident for up to 180 days. Every visitor, with validated mobile number, presented in tabular form to the sanghi unclejis who get voted in unopposed year after year (because nobody with a brain and conscience even bothers to stand up against these jobless rabblerousers).
(The MyGate privacy policy also straight up lies. No RWA guard will let you in without verifying your phone number. The app they receive simply does not allow it. Yet the website claims the phone number isn't necessary. Well clearly the foot soldiers aren't being trained in this "feature".)