When I first read about it, I thought that someone misspelt Sarah (an arabic name commonly used in Pakistan).

Later I found out that it’s an app in which you can give constructive criticism without revealing your name.The word Sarahah stands for honesty or frankness in Arabic thus revealing that the founder Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, is from the Gulf. We’ve seen similar things in past but for some reason, this one is up to stay for long!

Being an influencer, I had to sign up immediately and get ready to face the criticism. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad to start with. I got almost all the positive reviews as I was focused on Facebook. I felt most loved and appreciated for what I do. I had planned in my head to see its darker side too so I posted it on twitter as well and BINGO! Let’s be honest, it’s a major ego boost.

That’s where I got weird messages from those who didn’t even know me.

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

A man alone is less dangerous than a mob because he loses his individual identity in it. But a man anonymous on the internet is definitely more dangerous as he/she is accountable for nothing.

It’s not a power that you should give to strangers.

Major security flaw:

It is not as private as it sounds. Turns out that the app uploads users’ phone contacts to the company’s servers, which isn’t required. So it’s sucking in your contact address book for no reason at all!

The behaviour was spotted by security analyst Zachary Julian and first reported by The Intercept.  They aren’t even denying it. The founder said “the data request will be removed on next update” and that Sarahah’s servers don’t “currently host contacts.” Although they don’t yet provide any feature which links the contact list on the app, yet they might be saving it to sell the data later. Nevertheless, one more reason to avoid it.

I asked users to send me their weirdest comments yet. Few are also taken from twitter itself. Here are some less-PG examples of what goes around on Sarahah.

As if it is any of their business…

C1

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1

They will assume worst of you. Yes, worst!

2

3

You invited them to see anything they want. You also said that you won’t mind so…

4

Really???? Only if pizza was real

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Share your thoughts on it. Will you still continue using it? If yes, then why? #Sarahah

13 thoughts on “Good & ugly side of Sarahah: A deadly viral app with security flaws”

  1. It is reason like this I left the smart phone world and have denied my children access to them as well. It ashame that everything seems to get twisted and turned in to something nasty.

  2. I seen this all over Facebook and i downloaded it to see what all the fuss was about. I deleted it less than 3 minutes later lol. I had no msgs but I just got a bad feeling about it. Why do people need to hide behind an app to tell you how they feel these days?

  3. It is so hard to live life in technologies world. I feel like it sometimes can be more negative than positive. I do not need any more things in my life. .

  4. I’ve never heard of this app and doubt I would ever use it. It’s always good to research before jumpig in. Thanks for this post.

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