For Koo, with popularity comes scrutiny and controversy

The ongoing tussle between Twitter and the Narendra Modi government has come as a shot in the arm for Koo, which has seen a surge in its follower base. But with the popularity came the intense scrutiny.

French ethical hacker Elliot Alderson has claimed that 'Koo' -- the indigenously-developed alternative to Twitter -- is leaking personal data of users. 

On Thursday, Elliot Alderson took to his Twitter account and shared the information he collected from 'Koo's' platform. He claimed, "You asked so I did it. I spent 30 minutes on this new Koo app. The app is leaking the personal data of users: email, dob, name, marital status, gender..." 

To this, the co-founder and CEO of Koo, Aprameya Radhakrishnan, responded, "Something that the user has voluntarily shown on their profile of Koo. It cannot be termed a data leak. If you visit a user profile you can see it anyway."

Later, Alderson revealed that he could access an IAS officer's data whose personal details weren't even shown on his profile page, as mentioned by the Radhakrishnan. He even tagged the CEO in his Tweet.

Radhakrishnan replied, "We're attempting to do something for our country, India. All help is appreciated. If you want to help out in this journey of ours please write to me on ar@kooapp.com and we can take a look at all the feedback you have. Thanks!"

He went on add that 95% of Koo users log in through their mobile phone number. The Koo co-founder further said language communities in India do not use email to log in and hence were not the priority for the company.
 

Alderson though remained unconvinced.
 

Aprameya may have quelled some of the apprehensions for now, but there are chances he may have to do more of the same in the time to come.