Are you being recorded? Privacy at risk in new digital democracy
Clubhouse iPhone app explodes in popularity, spikes security debates
When Toronto resident Roger Huang helped start up the first China-focused discussion group on Clubhouse in December, the invitation-only audio chat app was popular only in certain circles, such as among tech workers.
The iPhone-only app made its debut last March, just as people were being ordered to stay at home to battle the pandemic and found themselves eager to talk to other people besides their family or roommates.
In the last few weeks, the app has exploded in popularity and with the spike in users came more debates about privacy and security on the platform.
The primary reason for the increased attention to Clubhouse is probably that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg recently made surprise appearances on the platform. When two technology icons worth a combined $280 billion choose to use the same app to get their messages out within a few days of each other, people tend to sit up and take notice.
Now, both Facebook and Twitter are working on their own versions of Clubhouse audio chat room features.
Huang’s group on Clubhouse, Tianxia, saw an increase of tens of thousands of new followers, and he has recently hosted conversations that lasted hours involving dozens of speakers and thousands of listeners.
Clubhouse allowed many mainland China users their first direct communication with a large number of people in Hong Kong and Taiwan and with exiles from the Uighur minority in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. Conversations were mostly civil and some speakers even said that listening to others helped change their perspectives on some of the most politically sensitive topics in China, such as democracy.
On Feb. 8, China blocked access to the app in the country, adding it to thousands of websites and social media apps the ruling party blocks the public from seeing using the world’s most extensive system of internet filters, known as the “Great Firewall.”
However, many users in China have access to VPNs, virtual private networks, which allow them to get around internet controls. Additionally, as the app continues to grow in popularity, it could see many more users joining from other countries with laws that criminalize free expression.
With the involvement of so many people from mainland China on the app, Huang and other group moderators became increasingly concerned about the safety of users in countries where freedom of expression is harshly denied.
“We emphasized at the beginning that conversations are offthe-record, but recently, we’ve realized we cannot guarantee that with lack of technical controls on audio recording, so we’ve resorted to telling people that they should expect everything to be recorded,” Huang told the Star.
Although the app itself says it doesn’t record the discussions occurring within its rooms, that doesn’t mean other participants aren’t. And the widely available recordings of discussions from celebrities like Musk prove there are ways for getting around Clubhouse’s 5,000-person limit in its rooms.
Melissa Chan, a Hong KongAmerican broadcast journalist, gave a talk on Clubhouse on Feb. 4 about Beijing’s overseas influence campaigns. She found out following the talk that the conversation was surreptitiously recorded by individuals who sympathized with Chinese Communist Party actions.
As an outspoken critic, she wasn’t surprised that she was targeted, but the incident made her fear for the safety of Chinese citizens who participated in the conversation.
“The security repercussions could be as benign as nothing happening to users, to police in their country detaining a Clubhouse user because of something they said. Even if absolutely nothing happens to a user living in an authoritarian country, keep in mind that that person lives with the uncertainty of not knowing if something might happen in the future,” Chan said.
Recent questions over Clubhouse security have centred around reports that the app works with a Chinese company, Agora, to provide real-time audio technology support. The firm is headquartered in Shanghai and Silicon Valley.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, co-founder and Agora’s head of Asia Pacific and emerging markets, Tony Wang, responded to concerns that the company would comply with Chinese laws compelling Chinese companies to co-operate with authorities.
“Agora is just a ‘pass-over.’ We don’t store any end-user data. And our clients will typically encrypt their user data.”
Clubhouse staff and founders Rohan Seth and Paul Davison did not respond to questions from the Star over its security features.
Clubhouse has yet to release detailed information on its security protocols. The app is still in the development stage, and in recent days, the app’s servers have struggled to accommodate the surge in users as more join the platform through member invitations.
Fergus Ryan, an analyst at the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says Clubhouse owes its users some answers.
“Agora has stated that they do not store user data. They claim that Agora is just a ‘pass-over’ and that they don’t store any end-user data. The question for Clubhouse is do they trust this assurance?
“Clubhouse users should know that even if Agora is telling the truth, the Chinese government could still put pressure on them (in the future) to store and then share the data with them. They could do this and Clubhouse would be none the wiser,” Ryan said.
Keeping all potential security risks in mind, Ryan said Clubhouse users should assume that no discussions on the app are private.
“Inevitably, this leads to more self-censorship as people understandably protect themselves from unfair treatment,” he said.