NEW DELHI: When Aditi took the personal massager she had ordered out of the Blinkit bag, the package was unsealed. “As is the drill, I took photos and uploaded them to the app to request a return. A delivery driver arrived to pick it up,” the 36-year-old Delhi resident says. She wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
“He took the massager out of the box, sniffed it and gave me a sly smile. He then asked me if I wanted a replacement,” she says. “I was disgusted and terrified. I told him to leave.”
But Aditi couldn’t quite slam the door shut on last year’s episode. Her private order became an ‘I know what you bought last summer’ secret the rider carried with him, one that was conveyed to her through smirks the few other times their paths crossed – she lives in the same neighbourhood, he too still works there.
Last week, a Faridabad based media strategist’s recounting of a chilling encounter with a rider who delivered a vibrator she ordered showed neither her nor Aditi’s experience were isolated ones and that delivery apps have serious questions to answer on how they handle customer privacy.
Pooja Joshi had ordered the product from Blinkit’s sexual wellness section. The rider didn’t keep the package and leave. He asked her what she bought. According to Pooja, when she told him to mind his own business, he left. Seconds later, her phone rang. The rider was calling again. When she answered, he allegedly told her, “Why are you using a vibrator? Use me instead.”
Wondering how he could make the call to her even after the delivery, Pooja said it was possible the man had not officially marked the delivery as ‘completed’ to retain access to her phone number, just so he could start a conversation. “I was so scared,” she told TOI . “This stranger who told me I should have sex with him knew exactly where I lived.”
After Pooja filed a complaint with Blinkit, the company informed her it had dismissed the rider. This, she says, made her more afraid: “I got him fired. Thanks to the delivery, he had my address.”
After she posted about her experience on LinkedIn, many commenters asked her why she couldn’t have ordered a vibrator from “a safer place”. Some suggested Amazon, which sends parcels in cartons. “That is not the point,” she told TOI .
“The point is if such products are available on a quick commerce website, it is the company’s responsibility to protect the customer’s privacy.”
A former executive at a quick commerce platform said there is a separate protocol in place for handling sexual wellness, medicine, intimate care and reproductive health products. The apps mark them under the ‘personal use items’ category. These are then packed in a way to ensure the product is not visible to delivery personnel. TOI asked delivery drivers whether they are aware of what is in the bags they take to customers’ homes. They said if a package is for ‘personal use’, it is wrapped to hide its contents.
But evidently, it’s different in practice. And riders who want to find out do. Noida resident Sweta (30) bought a pack of condoms from Zepto last month that arrived in the open. “Along with each grocery item, the delivery person handed me the condoms as well. He gave me a judgemental look. It was as if I was being put to shame for being sexually active,” she says.
Thane resident
Divya (40) said a Blinkit rider who came to her house a few months ago to deliver handcuffs, a vibrator and adult games for a bachelorette party seemed to have been surprised at the contents of his cargo, which came in a regular open bag. “The products were not wrapped. This much older gentleman asked me twice in disbelief, ‘madam, is this your order?’,” she said. “I just wanted to bury my head somewhere. This unknown person now had an opinion on my private life,” she added.
Koyel (28) said she once lied and sent back handcuffs and an intimate card game she had ordered on Swiggy Instamart because the delivery driver “had such a strange look on his face”.
“The products were not wrapped. The thought that this man now knew what I did in private made me so uncomfortable,” said the Chennai resident. “I got so embarrassed I told him it was not my order.”
The former quick commerce executive TOI spoke to said even though quick commerce platforms say they keep customer data confidential and ensure privacy by packaging sensitive items discreetly, ground reality depends on “company culture, worker training and operational pressure”.
The quick delivery times promised and prioritised by these companies seem to be the root of this breach of protocol. Customer privacy is collateral damage.
“Once the order flashes on the screen of a dark store, staffers have to pack the items in 2-4 minutes and keep them ready for the riders. In this hurry, they sometimes miss or skip the packaging protocol for ‘personal use’ products,” the executive said.
Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart did not respond to requests for a comment.
This practice, in fact, has led to lawyers encountering a new kind of customer complaint. Sonam Chandwani, managing partner at KS Legal and Associates, told TOI , “While complaints regarding defective products, delayed deliveries and refund disputes are common, we are also getting grievances where customers have felt embarrassed, exposed or humiliated because items of a highly personal nature were not packed in the discreet manner promised by the platform.”
She added, “The legal significance of such complaints lies in the fact that privacy is no longer viewed as a mere expectation of courtesy. Following the recognition of privacy as a fundamental right by Supreme Court, businesses that collect, process and fulfil orders involving personal information are expected to act in a manner that respects the dignity and confidentiality of consumers.”
Supreme Court lawyer Meera Kaura Patel said though there are no specific provisions in Consumer Protection Act about privacy, online platforms tell customers the nature of certain products will be redacted or concealed. “If, despite the promise of ‘discreet’ delivery, the goods are not properly sealed or their description is mentioned on the packaging, the same would run contrary to their own advertisement,” she said. It could then be argued, according to Patel, that the companies are running misleading ads.
“Revealing intimate or sexual preferences to a third person/delivery partner may also be qualified as disclosing sensitive personal information and could amount to an unfair trade practice,” she said. Consumer rights lawyers TOI spoke to say if companies do not put customer protections in place, incidents like the one with Pooja are likely to keep happening.
(Names of women who shared their experience have been changed on request)
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