The developers of the audio chat app Clubhouse plan to add additional encryption - after
Last week, Chinese authorities blockedin the country, the Clubhouse application developed in Silicon Valley. The reason for the blocking was the fact that the application had become a platform for discussing taboo topics. In China, this is classified as a criminal offense. While Clubhouse was not yet blocked, users were worried about the safety of their conversations. According to experts at Stanford University, the fears were not in vain.
New Stanford Internet Observatory Report(SIO) said the backend infrastructure of Clubhouse was provided by Shanghai real-time communications software provider Agora. In addition, SIO experts found that unique user and chat room IDs were transmitted unencrypted. According to SIO representatives on Twitter, this is cause for concern for millions of users, especially from China.
SIO researchers found that metadata fromClubhouse rooms are relayed to servers located in the People's Republic of China. Agora allegedly had access to users' audio and the data was sent "to servers operated by Chinese entities and distributed around the world." Because Agora is a Chinese company, cybersecurity law would require it to help the government search for and preserve audio messages if local authorities say they pose a national security threat. In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company acknowledged that it It will be required to “provide assistance and support in accordance with the law,” including the protection of national security and criminal investigations.
Stanford University researchers foundat least one instance of uploading room metadata to servers in China, and uploading audio to servers operated by Chinese organizations. What's more, Clubhouse has the ability to associate a user ID with their profile.
In response, Agora informed SIO that it does not storeuser audio or metadata, except for monitoring network quality and billing to its customers. As long as the audio is stored on servers in the US, the Chinese government will not be able to access the data. Agora also said it would hire an outside security firm.
In turn, Alpha Exploration(the company behind the app Clubhouse) told SIO that it is going to make changes to its work by introducing additional data encryption. In theory, it will be more difficult for China to track user activity.
Clubhouse is an iOS-only app designed for listening to live audio only.
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Each room in Clubhouse is a group audio chat in real time.