After hacker threat, Congress deletes its official mobile app

NEW DELHI: The Indian National Congress’ (INC) official mobile app ‘With INC’ seems to have disappeared from the Google Play Store, after anonymous

hacker

who goes by the moniker Elliot Alderson on Monday alleged that the app was sending users’ personal data to Singapore.

However, the Congress party's social media head tweeted saying the party app "has been defunct for a while now".

"The URL for membership on the INC (Indian National Congress) app has been defunct for a while now. Our membership is through the INC website. How difficult is that to understand," tweeted the Congress party's social media head Divya Spandana.




On the app being deleted by the Congress, Alderson (you can read more about him in our interview) speaking to ToI, said, “I think they got scared after my first tweet saying that I will look into their app.”

The vigilante hacker on Sunday had put out a message on micro-blogging site Twitter, saying he will publish “interesting details” about the Congress mobile app he’s found, on Monday.



On Monday, Alderson alleged that when a user signs up for the

Congress app

, her/ his personal data which is not “encrypted” is routed to the app’s servers in Singapore.

Read also: Rahul, BJP trade allegations about data sharing


Monday’s development comes in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s app -- the NaMo app-- running into trouble for asking its users for a strings of permissions including camera, photographs, location, contacts, and microphone.
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Interestingly, it was Alderson, who had pointed out on Saturday that the

NaMo app

was sharing user data with a third party in the US without the users’ consent.


Read also: Parties’ apps want access to users’ key data


On Sunday, the hacker alleged that the NaMo app had “quietly” updated its privacy settings.



Congress President Rahul Gandhi had earlier in the day urged users to delete the NaMo app.
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