Last week this new app called Sarahah surfaced out of nowhere and instantly became the new craze
People have become completely obsessed with this app to the point that it became the most trending conversation on Twitter. I mean you could say it’s the new Ludo Star in terms of popularity. Honestly, you never know with these apps. I myself have a hard time following whats hot and whats not anymore. These trends keep on changing so fast it’s close to impossible to remain up to date.
For those of you who are not aware of this, it’s an anonymous messaging app
Basically, you can shoot messages to anyone without revealing your true identity. As expected the app was primarily used for tharak purposes. The anonymity factor allowed people to unleash their true creepy selves to the world. In many ways, you could say that the app is the ultimate dream for all the trolls, stalkers and dil jalas out there.
The people didn’t actually seem to mind all the freaky messages they were getting. It was just harmless fun in the end. You know stick and stones may break my bones but words, well are just words.
However, it appears that the app may not be that harmless after all
While you’re sending those weird ass messages to people you may or may not necessarily know, the app is quietly is taking liberties with your personal data. So, according to various international publications including The Verge and The Intercept, as soon as you launch the app, it records and subsequently uploads all the information on your address book.
Yeah, you read that right, your information is being used for God knows what.
While Sarahah does request the user to access his or her contacts it doesn’t disclose that the data is uploaded
All the phone numbers and email addresses stored in your phone are immediately mined by the app. Sarahah’s creator Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq recently tweeted that the contacts functionality will not be included in all the future versions of the app. He also added that the purpose of this was to develop the ‘find your friends’ feature. In an interview with The Intercept, he claimed that this has been removed and the app has not stored any user information on its personal databases.
Well given the traction this app has gotten over the week, Pakistanis had a lot to say on the new revelation
There were those that didn’t think of it as something alarming
Some took the opportunity to bash the app over it perpetuating unnecessary tharkipana
While there were those that came in full defense of the app
What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.