[ishansharma]

And all this with spamming!

No offence with them but I've been spammed like anything by them. It has happened with lot of my friends. When they install app, it sends texts to ALL contacts without permission prompting to install the app!

And this has been #1 reason I did not install it.

[iamshs]

What makes it more shady is that they are funded by Bharti Softbank. Bharti manages Airtel, one of the big telcos in India. So maybe, they want more people to use Hike and maybe sell over some data to Airtel. Since they are spamming, their privacy policy needs to be combed over too. Also, the article looks like a PR piece for SF expansion, and to generate American funds.

[kbmittal]

Here's our privacy policy - hike.in/terms. I'd love for you to go through it line by line. The invites sent when a user launches the app is user initiated. The UX built wasn't great clearly so we removed it.

On Data and Airtel, can't blame you for thinking that way. Most of the industry is filled with those kinds. Airtel and BSB are different companies. No such thing happening.

(Creator @hikeapp)

[iamshs]

Thank you for replying. Good to know Airtel and BSB are separate enterprises. I went through the terms.

"Hike TOS:

hike may receive data whenever You connect with an application or site through hike (such as during status update, when You connect to other sites and in which case hike posts to these sites on Your behalf ). This may include date and time You visit the site, the web address, IP address information, browser and if You are logged into hike and Your authentication tokens used on such sites. Your authentication tokens may be saved on the server for the sole purpose of seamless posting to the same site by You in the future through hike.

We may share non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous user usage data, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform types, asset views, number of clicks, etc.) with third-parties to better understand usage patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or functionality related to hike application."

So you store "authentication tokens", and maybe FB and Google+, twitter data interactions....I think you are aiming for this goldmine, since normally this data through Airtel's network will be encrypted. Pardon my skeptic viewpoint, but it looks you are not aiming for directly monetizing this app itself but are building a satellite platform based upon this app.

[kbmittal]

1. "Authentication Tokens" are stored only with user permission. Why? So we can seamlessly allow the user who gives us permission to post to FB, Twitter. Its standard industry practice.

2. non-personally-identifiable information is something every app collects and should do so. It helps us understand our how to serve our users better. With respect to 3rd parties - see 'Kontagent' for example. They're a super smart data analysis company. Why re-invent the wheel. Again, a standard industry practice.

Hope that puts your skeptical viewpoints to rest :)

[ishansharma]

My experience with Airtel has been good till now. They provide good service and in fact are the best network providers in my area. But the tactics are very shady of course.

However, I don't think they will get much users. Most of people around me are entrenched in WhatsApp and those who want to try something new get Cubie(I use it as well, it does not spam!)

[sn0v]

I can testify to this as well. The irony is that they're using Whatsapp to spam me :D

[kbmittal]

The intention was and is never to spam at all. There are a couple of screens that allow you to invite your friends. It's pretty clear that users don't pay attention to this, so we've decided to remove this completely.

We learn quick :)

(Creator @hikeapp)