Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that the NaMo app is sharing data with “American companies”. In a tweet, he accused the NaMo app of being involved in data theft.
Attaching a Janta Ka Reporter news report, the Congress president said in his tweet, “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”.
Thanks mainstream media, you’re doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always, Gandhi added.
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.https://t.co/IZYzkuH1ZH
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2018
Gandhi’s jibe against PM Modi comes after a France-based hacker Elliot Alderson claimed that NaMo has compromised the personal data of millions of Indians, who had downloaded the app on their mobile.
When you create a profile in the official @narendramodi #Android app, all your device info (OS, network type, Carrier …) and personal data (email, photo, gender, name, …) are send without your consent to a third-party domain called https://t.co/N3zA3QeNZO. pic.twitter.com/Vey3OP6hcf
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 23, 2018
Incidentally, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress have upped the ante against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent times. The scathing attack comes close on the heels of the controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica data leak.
Earlier in a tweet, Rahul Gandhi had also attacked BJP saying that the BJP lying factory at work and real story are “vanished” after BJP spins ‘fake news’.
The Gandhi scion had also taken a jibe at Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for “peddling fake news” and ignoring appointment of judges leading to pendency of cases.
Also read | Legal system collapsing, while Prasad peddles fake news: Rahul Gandhi
BJP and Congress Party are at loggerheads over Cambridge Analytica’s role in Indian politics and its alleged involvement in the 2014 elections.
Earlier, Law Minister Prasad had alleged that the Congress resorted to data theft and data manipulation to win elections and questioned the role of the Cambridge Analytica in the social media management of Congress and party president Rahul Gandhi’s social media accounts.
In their defence, the Congress called Prasad a “minister of lies”, and asked the BJP that if Cambridge Analytica was involved in stealing data, then why did it take its services and whether it would register an FIR against CA and its Indian arm Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI).
Cambridge Analytica is under scanner in many countries over allegations of stealing data of Facebook users and alleged use of bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians.