UPDATE: Regarding allegations of data leak, Koo co-founder and CEO Aprameya R said this on his Twitter handle: "The data visible is something that the user has voluntarily shown on their profile of Koo. It cannot be termed a data leak. If you visit a user profile you can see it anyway."
ORIGINAL REPORT: Since a few days, everyone online in India seems to be talking about the new?¡®Koo App¡¯?-- a made-in-India microblogging platform that stands to compete against the popular and mighty Twitter.?
Yesterday we saw a rather strange trend on Twitter -- #BanTwitterInIndia -- with a major chunk of users deciding to make the switch to the ¡®made-in-India¡¯ Koo app.?
The fledgling Koo App has received a lot of early adoption from Indian government entities, as several ministers, ministries, and departments, seem to have created their official Koo profiles and are posting them on their Twitter handles to get their followers to migrate to the Made-in-India Koo app platform.
But ever since it got into the spotlight, the Koo app has now being hit with some serious allegations -- its platform's security and integrity is being questioned and investor money is raising eyebrows.
A tweet by infamous ethical hacker Elliot Alderson -- the same person who made revelations surrounding the Aadhar app -- seemingly tore apart the Koo app to see how it dealt with user data, after a few of its followers asked to test its safety.
Alderson says that the Koo app was in fact leaking confidential information of its users -- information such as email, date of birth, marital status, gender etc -- basically whatever you enter while registering on Koo app, except the password.?
Another thing that has come to light is a Chinese stakeholder in the Zoo app's parent company. Its registrant was named Tao Zhou, under the organisation Zhoutao originating from Jiangxi state in China.?
This info has since been pulled down moments after Anderson revealed it on Twitter, but you can still find it in places like Crunchbase.?
Koo App¡¯s co-founder Aprameya R on Twitter announced yesterday that it had a Chinese conglomerate -- Shunwei Capital -- as one of its investors. According to Aprameya, they are a very small stakeholder who had invested in their company when they were working on an earlier brand dubbed Vokal.?However, since they put their primary focus on Koo, they¡¯re working on buying out the investor stake completely.?
In a tweet, he even revealed how Koo is entirely an ¡®Indian registered¡¯ company by Indian founders, ¡°Koo is an India registered company with Indian founders. Raised earlier capital 2.5 years ago. Latest funds for Bombinate Technologies is led by a truly Indian investor 3one4 capital. Shunwei (single-digit shareholder) which had invested in our Vokal journey will be exiting fully.¡±
This isn't a good start for Koo app, if it wants to become an Indian, multi-lingual alternative to Twitter, with questions surrounding its handling of personal user information is concerned. And the Chinese stakeholder revelation doesn't bode well for the Koo app's Made-in-India image.
What do you think about the Koo app? Is it going to be India's answer to Twitter? Have you already made an account on Koo? Or will you wait and watch? Let us know in the comments below...