Grégoire Cazcarra, one of the co-founders of the decried application Elyze, becomes adviser in charge of digital communication for the government spokesperson, Olivia Grégoire. This may not improve the reputation of the app.
One of the co-founders of the Elyze mobile application, Grégoire Cazcarra, has joined the cabinet of government spokesperson Olivia Grégoire. “Grégoire Cazcarra is appointed adviser in charge of digital communication […] from June 9″indicates the decree published in Official newspaper Tuesday, June 14. The 22-year-old rose to fame as the co-founder of the app dubbed “the Tinder of politics”. Still active, the app now allows you to match users with legislative candidates.
Because that is the essence of the concept. During the presidential election, the Elyze application initially aroused a wave of popular enthusiasm by offering the undecided to find out which candidate suited them. It was enough for that to answer a panel of questions in swiping To the left or to the right. A bit like in Tinder, the app made you match with several political personalities having opinions more or less close to yours. She thus intended to fight against the abstention of 18-30 year olds.
Do you remember the Elyze app on which I found a security flaw in January?
Its creator has just joined the office of the government spokesperson, as a digital communication advisor.
Uninstall this app. https://t.co/Vk4B4xD9Cu
— Mathis Hammel (@MathisHammel) June 14, 2022
Still, the concept, already decried for its relative relevance, was quickly pointed out by some cybersecurity experts for other flaws. For example, it was possible to modify certain proposals submitted to all users of the application by exploiting a bug. Another example: Emmanuel Macron systematically came first when he was tied with other candidates.
Others were also concerned about the possible creation of a huge database of undecided voters, which could have been used by third-party organizations, since the first version of the app included a notice allowing the resale of data. The creators had finally committed to deleting all the data already collected.