Congress official mobile app disappears after hacker threat

Following an anonymous hacker’s claim that the Indian National Congress’ (INC) official mobile app ‘With INC’ was sending users’ personal data to Singapore, the app disappeared from the Google Play Store.

The hacker, Elliot Anderson on Sunday shared a message on Twitter that he plans to publish interesting details about the app.

Tweet:

I found something interesting on the With INC #android app, details will be published tomorrow 😘

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 25, 2018

He further alleged that the app is routing a user’s personal data to the app’s servers in Singapore as soon as one signs up.

Refuting the allegation, Congress social media head Divya Spandana said,

Forget sharing, we don’t collect any data through the App. What a dimwit @malviyamit https://t.co/geq5YdlpQY

— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) March 26, 2018

This development comes in the wake of Minister Narendra Modi’s app -- the NaMo app also garnering trouble after users were asked for a string of permissions including camera, photographs, location, contacts, and microphone.

Alderson had pointed out on Saturday that the app was sharing user data with a third party in the US without the users’ consent.

Tweet:

When you create a profile in the official @narendramodi #Android app, all your device info (OS, network type, Carrier …) and personal data (email, photo, gender, name, …) are send without your consent to a third-party domain called https://t.co/N3zA3QeNZO. pic.twitter.com/Vey3OP6hcf

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 23, 2018

He further alleged that the NaMo app had ‘quietly’ updated its privacy settings.

Tweet:

After the NaMo #android app exposé yesterday, the privacy policy of @narendramodi has been change quietly. The cached version is accessible here https://t.co/K7Uz5mUsR1

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 25, 2018