A full-scale war of words broke out Monday between the principal Opposition Congress and the ruling BJP over alleged misuse of Indians’ data, with both camps accusing each other of indulging in “data theft” and compromising the privacy of Indians using their various digital platforms.
Keeping his guns trained on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of reports that data of millions of users of the PM’s official Narendra Modi App (NaMo App) had been shared without their consent, Congress president Rahul Gandhi fired fresh salvos at the PM.
“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,” Rahul tweeted, using the hashtag “#DeleteNaMoApp”.
In another bristling tweet, the Congress president charged: “Modi misusing PM position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by Govt. If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi.”
Hitting back, the BJP accused the Congress of committing “data theft”, charging that the latter had taken down its official “With INC” app as well as its membership website which have been allegedly misusing their users’ data.
Like the BJP, the Congress also denied the allegations in the matter, even as Modi’s app reportedly made changes in its privacy setting following the controversy.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani went after Rahul, claiming that the latter now knows about the NCC thanks to the NaMo app.
“Rahul Gandhi Ji, even Chhota Bheem knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don’t tantamount to snooping,” Smriti tweeted, referring to the lead character from an animated TV series for children.
“Ye kya Rahul Gandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself,” Smriti charged in a series of derisive tweets.
“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?” Smriti alleged.
Rejecting the allegations, the Congress said, “There has been no breach of data whatsoever. The WithINC app is a membership app & has not been in use for over 5 months since we moved membership to http://www.inc.in…The URL (http://membership.inc.in ) quoted by the media is the defunct URL from the app.”
The Congress added : “WithINC app was being used for Social Media updates alone since transitioning the membership to the website. This morning we were forced to remove the app from the Play store as the wrong URL was being circulated…”
The BJP dismissed Rahul’s accusation of “data theft” against PM Modi as his “technological illiteracy”, alleging that the Congress chief was “rattled” after his plan to influence the next Lok Sabha election with the help of the tainted data-mining company Cambridge Analytica was “exposed”.
At a press conference, BJP spokesman Sambit Patra slammed Rahul, charging reportedly that the Congress president would tweet tomorrow that Modi and BJP are connected to electronic voting machines through the NaMo app and that they have been winning election after election because they have hacked them.
He alleged that the Congress was stealing data of 20 crore Indian Facebook users with the help of Cambridge Analytica, but was caught.
Defending NaMo app, Patra cited user information sought by various media apps to claim that these permissions are demanded by smart apps for analytics that would not amount to snooping.
At the Congress’s press conference, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi questioned how safe the people’s money and their personal information were under the Modi dispensation following a number of major bank frauds and data theft scandals.
Alleging that PM Modi has been attacking the privacy of Indians, Singhvi reportedly alleged that “It is a data-leak government.”
“On one hand there is data leak in banks and crores being siphoned from the country by people like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallaya, and on the other there is leak of data happening in the country,” he said.
“How safe is your data in banks? Today there is a loot in banks. People have run away with money. How safe is your money in the banks,” Singhvi asked.