India PM Modi app sparks social media furore Published duration 26 March 2018

image copyright NArendra Modi app

Indian PM Narendra Modi's official mobile application has been criticised for sending personal user data to a third party without their consent.

A security researcher had tweeted that the app was sending personal user data to a third-party domain that was traced to a US company.

Mr Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has denied the allegation.

The party said the data was being used only for analytics to offer all users the "most contextual content".

The researcher, who tweets under the pseudonym Elliot Alderson, posted a series of tweets on Saturday stating Mr Modi's app was sending personal user data to a third party.

Rahul Gandhi, the chief of the the main opposition Congress party, took to Twitter on Sunday to criticise Mr Modi.

The BJP responded swiftly, saying Mr Gandhi was trying to divert attention.

Last week India's law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said there were "numerous reports" of the Congress party's connections with controversial data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

He asked Mr Gandhi to "explain" the company's role in his social media outreach.

The opposition party has denied the charges.

The party said the data from Mr Modi's app was being used for analytics:

The security researcher later posted a new tweet on Sunday saying Mr Modi's app had been "quietly" updated its privacy policy.

Mr Modi launched his official app in 2015, adding another platform to his massive social media presence.

He is among the five most popular politicians on Twitter with 41.4 million followers.