- Mitron crossed 10 million downloads! (Another 5M in the last month) after coming back on Google Play Store this month.
Mitron crossed 10 million downloads! (Another 5M in the last month) The app’s ranking took a hit after being taken down for a week (top 10 -> 180+) but is back up in the top 25 this weekend (top 10 since yesterday) potentially fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment in the country.
Mitron was launched in Google Play store less than two months ago and has capitalized on the anti-China and anti-TikTok sentiments prevailing in the country right now. Last month, the app was reported to have a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to compromise user accounts and send messages on behalf of a specific user. The flaw didn’t allow any bad actor to steal personal information such as the email ID that a user had used to sign up an account on the Mitron app. It is unclear if the developer has fixed the security flaw in the new version.
It was eventually banned by Google for policy violations.
The app was dubbed as the brainchild of an IIT student from Roorkee named Shivank Aggarwal. But this founder ‘s identity was called into question after no one was able to identify any person’s digital presence by this name.
Also, the entire source code of the Mitron app, including its complete collection of features and user interface, was purchased for $34 (Rs 2,600) from Pakistani software developer firm, Qboxus.
Google soon red-flagged the software and agreed to suspend it for violating its policy on ‘spam and poor features.’
The app should provide users with a specific degree of accessibility and acceptable user experience according to the policy. Another policy provision describes a ‘repetitive content,’ implying that ‘copying material from other applications without inserting any original content or merit’ is a violation.
The research carried out also found that 5 million users who downloaded the app would be worried about their privacy.
On June 3, the app was patched and the Privacy Policy has been revised.
A tab on ‘GDPR Data Privacy Privileges’ is now included. The app also had its promoter website built and updated.
