French security researcher Robert Baptiste, who goes by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson, said that the app was leaking the personal data of users.

Atom Controversy Friday, February 12, 2021 - 13:40
TNM Staff

Vernacular microblogging platform Koo, which has found favour as a homegrown alternative after the Union government’s disapproval with Twitter, has found itself in the midst of several controversies — including a data leak row and Chinese investment into the app. On Thursday,  French security researcher Robert Baptiste who goes by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson on Twitter, said he spent 30 minutes on the platform and that it was leaking users’ personal data.

"You asked so I did it. I spent 30 min on this new Koo app. The app is leaking the personal data of users: email, dob, name, marital status, gender," said Alderson, as he also posted a screenshot of a user data.

Koo Co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna denied that there was any data leak.

"Some news about data leaking being spoken about unnecessarily. Please read this: The data visible is 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," Radhakrishna said in a tweet.

Alderson, who earlier pointed out flaws in Aadhaar platform and the Aarogya Setu app, quickly reacted, saying, "Update: Koo founder commented on the leak. It's a lie. I did check this point before tweeting and it was not true."

Aprameya had earlier told IANS the data breach allegations are “fairly exaggerated”.

“95% of Koo users login through their mobile phone number. Language communities of India do not use email to login and hence was not the priority of the company. Email login was introduced recently. Now that concerns have been raised it has already been blocked from view. The data he claims was visible is 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,” he said in a statement.

“We are just a 10-month-old platform and this sudden surge in our visibility and user base was unexpected. We are improving our platform day by day. All these technical issues are not something that cannot be dealt with or improved,” he added.

According to IANS, the app’s daily active user base has jumped nearly 30x since January and is moving towards the 1 million mark. Reports say it has about 3 million users currently.

Koo’s surge in users comes amid a controversy after the Union government asked Twitter to ban users after the farmers’ protest on January 26. Twitter withheld many accounts on that day and restored them the same day. Later, in a statement, it said that it blocked 500 accounts, but won’t be blocking ones of activists, journalists, news media and politicians to uphold freedom of expression. This didn’t go down well with the Union government, which expressed its disapproval. 

Another controversy that has hit the platform is the issue of investment from China as the platform pitches itself as an Indian app.

Koo earlier this month announced that it has raised $4.1 million as part of its Series A funding. Investors in Koo include Mohandas Pai's 3one4 Capital, Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and Dream Incubator.

However, one of its investors is also Shunwei, who didn’t participate in the round.

“Shunwei had not participated in the latest round of funding. Around 2.5 years ago, Shunwei had invested in the company for the earlier product Vokal which answers user questions in Indian languages. It will be exiting fully with the new investors buying their stake and they will exit. Existing investors including 3one4 Capital, Kalaari and others will also be buying out some of the stake,” Aprameya said in a statement.

“A set of Indian entrepreneurs are seen to be investing in Koo with Ashish Hemrajani from BookMyShow, Vivekananda from Bounce, Nikhil Kamat of Zerodha amongst various others entering the cap table of the company. It is a clear indication that the company is getting more and more Indian money into the company,” he added.

"Due to the increased restrictions on Chinese investors in India, the exit procedure was working through the required checks and clarifications before being completed," Radhakrishna told IANS.

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