Koo is leaking users' personal data: French hacker Elliot Alderson

Founded in March 2020 by Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo can be used to express views and opinions on various topics much like Twitter.

A French hacker, who goes by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson, said micro-blogging platform Koo is leaking the personal data of its users.

Alderson said the app is leaking users' information such as email, date of birth, name, marital status, and gender.

You asked so I did it. I spent 30 min on this new Koo app. The app is leaking of the personal data of his users: email, dob, name, marital status, gender, ... https://t.co/87Et18MrOgpic.twitter.com/qzrXeFBW0L

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) February 10, 2021

Several Union ministers recently shifted to the app, which is perceived as an Indian alternative to Twitter.

On February 10, Alderson said several Twitter users had asked him to test Koo.

Koo was founded in March 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. The platform won the AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Challenge held by the government in August 2020.

Also read | Koo founder: All for freedom of speech but will first follow law of the land

A row between the Indian government and Twitter began after the former requested blocking of accounts using a hashtag on "farmer genocide".

In a blog post on February 10, Twitter said it had temporarily complied with emergency blocking orders. It said it "withheld a portion of the accounts identified in the blocking orders" within Indian only.

"Separate to our enforcement under the Twitter Rules, over the course of the last 10 days, Twitter has been served with several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Out of these, two were emergency blocking orders that we temporarily complied with but subsequently restored access to the content in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law."

Also read: What is Koo, how to download it, and why Indian ministers are moving to the Twitter alternative

MeitY in a statement said it asked Twitter to "respect the Indian laws and democratic institutions."