High-tech snooping: Maha hoteliers say privacy of customers, celebs at risk

Mumbai: Hoteliers have taken strong umbrage at the Maharashtra government’s pre-election “draconian” missive seeking to keep an eye on AI-based CCTVs on all licensed bars to monitor all activities live and ‘real-time’, terming it as intrusive and taken without consulting the stakeholders, and akin to creating a ‘police state’.

The Hotel And Restaurant Association Western India (HRAWI) said that the government’s order mandating around 20,000 licensed liquor vendors in the state to install advanced CCTVs capable of 24×7 real-time AI and machine-learning monitoring at entry points.

The advanced system would use AI-ML algorithms to analyse video footage in real-time to detect and recognize objects, faces, and behaviour, providing enhanced security and monitoring capabilities and sending alerts for user-defined activities.

The issue was first highlighted in detail by IANS (October 16) kicking off a huge debate in the hospitality industry with HRAWI raising concerns about it as “draconian, excessive, expensive and intrusive” without a proven efficacy for enhancing public safety.

In a detailed statement today, HRAWI Secretary Pradeep Shetty said that they have submitted a memorandum to state Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik saying they were not consulted on the unreasonable and arbitrary order that would cause financial and other burdens on the hotels-restaurants.

Shetty pointed out the major privacy issues especially for celebs or VIP guests, those coming to spend unguarded moments with their families/friends and videotapes of such gatherings with data storage and transmission could lead to cybersecurity risks.

The HRAWI has warned of possible exposure to ransomware, hacking and exposing the establishments to risks of data privacy and breach on which the government order is silent.

“The order infringes on the privacy rights of patrons, negatively impacting the hospitality businesses as the mandated surveillance including live feeds, real-time alerts and stored footage could drive away customers,” said a worried Shetty.

The HRAWI Vice-Chairman Chetan Mehta explained that the additional cost burdens which would be at least Rs 5-Lakhs for installation per establishment plus annual maintenance of over Rs 75,000, besides the costs of the round-the-clock high-speed Internet with 2TB storage, etc.

Mehta demanded that security being a state subject, the “cost of such an expensive and complicated system should be borne by the state” as it would be unaffordable for small establishments, as most already maintain the regular CCTV security that is available for the authorities as per needs.

Senior VP of HRAWI, Nirav Gandhi pointed out that such real-time AI monitoring is unmanageable and impractical, especially given the high volume of data that would be generated across establishments, with potential legal and ethical issues surrounding data security and customer privacy.

“The imposition of the order suffers from unworkability in terms of the utility of the live-feed data from more than 5000 establishments in Mumbai alone. It would be humanly impossible to watch and analyse the data except for under circumstances that are post facto, for which a static CCTV footage stored data is sufficient,” averred Gandhi.

Moreover, the HRAWI feels that the face recognition requirement is unrealistic for verifying underage patrons or criminals, the order is an extreme and impractical measure that neither enhances security nor ensures timely closure of establishments, with a risk of creating a ‘Big Brother’ or ‘Police State’

Since privacy is a fundamental right, the HRAWI has said that it should have been sanctioned by legislation rather than an executive order and called upon the government to defer its implementation till all concerns of the hotel industry and others are addressed.

Earlier, IANS reported how barring defence units, all licensed bars/restaurants would be required to install such a system that even earned the ire of a consumer organisation, Grahak Bharati President Barrister Vinod Tiwari, which termed it as a ‘Gestapo style’ surveillance on the ordinary people.

The entire system and components with technical specifications would consist of IP-based CCTV cameras with 5MP resolution; Network Video Recorder; Network Switch; Display; UPS; and an AI-ML-based Edge device with Raven-AI, as per the order.

The minimum technical requirements include real-time detection of the customer’s face, age, establishment opening/closing time tracking, tampering with any CCTVs, a mobile-based App, all-round compatibility with all cameras available in the market, 24×7 recording in HD with record, backup and playback functions, at least a 2 TB storage HDD, high-resolution recording through IP Dome/Bullet cameras, etc.

The state’s 20,000 licensed liquor vendors, including shops, bars and restaurants, sprawling from the neighbourhood watering holes to the posh five-star hotels, clubs, social organisations, etc., collectively coughed out over Rs 23,000 crore revenue for the state coffers in 2023.

IANS