Koo app found to be leaking sensitive users data, China connection surfaces

Koo is a new Indian microblogging platform with Twitter-like experience in Indian languages. The app has been developed by Aprameya Radhakrishna, who is also the CEO of the platform, and was launched in March last year.

However, noted French security researcher Robert Baptiste aka Elliot Alderson accuses the app of exposing users’ personal data.

The security researcher claims that he spent 30 min on the Koo app on request of Twitter users and found that the app is exposing sensitive information like email ID, date of birth, name, marital status, and gender of the users.

Koo has recently gained attention after Twitter didn’t oblige to government’s request to block some accounts related to the ongoing farmers’ protest. Koo app’s domain is registered in the US while the registrant based in China.

Koo app is being promoted by government officials including Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who recently asked users to join the app.

The service is available on desktop, Android, and iOS and offers Twitter-like experience and has Indian language support.

It also won the Indian government’s Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge last year, which was meant to encourage local app development. Koo app is said to be facing a huge demand at the moment and this is causing the app/ website to crash.

The app developers haven’t commented on the data leak allegations at the moment and we can only a hope a fix should be on its way.

Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, has become the talk of the town as it promotes Aatmanirbhar Bharat by offering a a Twitter-like experience, but in Indian languages. It is available as an app on both iOS and Android, and also has a webpage.

Koo is the winner of the government's Aatmanirbhar Bharat app challenge from 2020. Although it largely faded from the spotlight after that, the app has again gained popularity after Twitter refused to take down some content that the government had ordered it to remove.

Koo app is available for free on Android and iOS, and there is a website as well where you can check out the feed.

Not just Goyal, there are other senior politicians who are using Koo, including Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. Government ministries and departments such as the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), India Post, MyGovIndia, Digital India, and National Informatics Centre (NIC), among others, are also on the platform.