Congress takes down 'WithINC' app, says no data breach

The Congress on Monday took down its ‘WithINC mobile app, saying it had been defunct for five months and emphasising that there was no breach of data through it.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the allegations of Congress collecting data through this app were the "half truth".  

 "As is usual with the BJP, they did not tell you that the ‘WithINC' app had only 15,000 downloads. It had become defunct because our people do not like the ‘missed call' membership. Congressmen believe in physical or offline membership. In contrast the Narendra Modi app has had 50 lakh downloads," he said.  

 Earlier, the Congress, on its official Twitter handle, said that the ‘WithINC' was only a membership app and had not been in use for over five months since the party moved membership to www.inc.in from November 16, 2017. 

 "This morning we were forced to remove the app from the Google Playstore as the wrong URL was being circulated and people were being misled.

 "The URL (http://membership.inc.in) quoted by the media is the defunct URL from the app," it said.

 It said that the app was being used for "social media updates alone since transitioning the membership to the website". 

 "There is no truth to this allegation. There has been no breach of data whatsoever," it said.

 On Sunday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleged that the users' data collected through the Narendra Modi app was being shared with American companies. The Bharatiya Janata Party retaliated by pointing fingers towards the Congress app.