Divya Spandana of Congress asserted that the link for the membership of the App for Congress had not been functioning for a while: “We don’t collect any personal data through the INC app. We discontinued it a long time ago. It was being used only for social media updates. We collect data for membership and this is through our website, this is encrypted.”
As charges of sharing users’ data backfired, the Congress party ended up pulling down its App along with its membership website. The party’s website had disappeared with a message flashing on the screen as: “We are incorporating minor changes to the website. Please visit us again in a while to access the INC Membership process.”
On the other hand, the Congress had been planting attacks on the Narendra Modi app which is the Prime Minister’s official app- amidst allegations that it had shared the users’ data with a US-based firm without any permission. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party president posted on Twitter yesterday: “Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India’s Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies. Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you’re doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always.”
But as is always the case, BJP reciprocated with a storm of tweets, one of them including that of Union Minister Smriti Irani as well.
Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica? pic.twitter.com/U5YLTckBsf
— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 26, 2018
As a matter of fact, Smriti Irani mocked the Congress for having to delete its official app.
Moreover, Divya Spandana of Congress asserted that the link for the membership of the App for Congress had not been functioning for a while: “We don’t collect any personal data through the INC app. We discontinued it a long time ago. It was being used only for social media updates. We collect data for membership and this is through our website, this is encrypted.”
The allegations seem to have erupted in line with a huge scandal over the way personal data of the Facebook users was being misused by the infamous data analytics firm of Cambridge Analytica to aid the political parties in the elections.
Rahul, for that matter, had posted an additional incisive tweet along with the hashtag #DeleteNaMoApp.
Modi’s NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.
He’s the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.
Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018
Head of BJP IT Cell, Amit Malviya too struck back after the Congress deleted its App:
Rahul Gandhi gave a call to #DeleteNaMoApp, but Congress deleted its own App from the App store after they were called out. What is the Congress party hiding? pic.twitter.com/nAJTDAMmoc
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 26, 2018
The BJP, on the other hand, admitted that albeit it is sharing information but at the same time it maintained that the party is not indulging in any kind of misdeed. The party said, “Contrary to Rahul’s lies, the fact is that data is being used for only analytics using third-party service, similar to Google Analytics.”
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