‘Users’ data at risk on Twitter’s Made in India option Koo’

Koo, a hacker on the Indian microblogging platform, claims that the platform is not able to protect users’ personal data. Koo is being touted as the Indian alternative to Twitter and in the last few days, the app has been promoted by many government ministries, leaders and other popular personalities. It is available in both website and app form. Now, a French security researcher Robert Baptiste (named Elliot Alderson on Twitter) says that Koo is exposing its users’ personal data. Baptiste said he spent 30 minutes on Koo at the request of Twitter users and found that the microblogging platform was exposing sensitive information of its users such as email addresses, names and birthdays along with many other details. He posted several tweets to explain his research about Koo in detail. The Indian social media platform was launched in March 2020, but Koo has suddenly gained a lot of popularity in the last few days due to the ongoing differences between Twitter and the government.

Through a screenshot posted on Twitter, Baptiste claimed that the personal information of Koo users is not secure and may be exposed. By hacking the app, the hacker has proved that many personal information of the users like email, date of birth, marital status can be easily exposed in Koo. In some other screenshots, Baptiste also suggested that Koo’s domain is registered in the US with a registrar based in China.

Made in India microblogging app Koo is being promoted by several government officials including Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Ravi Shankar Prasad. They recently invited users to migrate to Koo through a post on Twitter. Many ministries and government companies including India Post and MeiTY have also created their accounts in Koo. Let us tell you that Koo is available on desktop, iOS and Android. One of its major features is its inclusion of support for many local languages. The app had last year won the government’s Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge, which aimed to encourage local app developers. Koo is developed by Aprameya Radhakrishna, who is also the co-founder and CEO of this platform.