Maharashtra Congress accuses CM Devendra Fadnavis of leaking user data through govt app

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan accused Mahadev Jankar of favouritism. (Express photo by Renuka Puri/Files)

Two days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of leaking details of users of the NaMo app to a US firm, the Congress on Tuesday trained guns on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis levelling similar accusations against him.

Former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday alleged that the state government’s recently launched social media application — Social Media Mahamitra — was sharing personal data, including email IDs, names, gender, photos, and contacts of users to a third party without their consent.

During the state legislative assembly proceedings, Chavan alleged, “The CM launched the government app with much fanfare on February 1. While the application was released by the government’s publicity department, we found it was being run and maintained by a charity trust, Anulom, whose founder Atul Waze has declared that he works under the guidance of the CM.”

He further alleged, “We found that the user information was being shared with the URL anulom.org and the server is based in West Germany. The CM must come clean on the reason for sharing the user information with the trust,” Chavan said. But the government later countered the allegation, with MoS (General Administration) Ranjit Patil even lashing out at the former CM for “raising unfounded suspicion.”

“There is no question of sharing any user information with the third party. The only information collection from the users is their mobile number and email address. There is no relation between the government’s app and Anulom’s own app. The user information is secure with the DGIPR, and is not shared on the Anulom app,” Patil said.

While Chavan also cast aspersions on the reasons for shortlisting Anulom for the government app, Patil claimed that the government has entered into a valid legal contract with the charity in this regard. Chavan has raised the suspicion that the user data from the app was being used for social profiling and micro targeting, in violation of e-privacy norms.