Audio app Clubhouse reviews its data protection practices over reports of security flaws

According to Euractiv, U.S. audio app Clubhouse announces it was reviewing its data protection practices, after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users’ data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government. The Stanford Internet Observatory has confirmed that Agora, a Shanghai-based provider of real-time engagement software, supplies back-end infrastructure to the Clubhouse App. Agora is likely have access to users’ raw audio, potentially providing access to the Chinese government. Clubhouse announced that “over the next 72 hours, we are rolling out changes to add additional encryption and blocks to prevent Clubhouse clients from ever transmitting pings to Chinese servers. We also plan to engage an external data security firm to review and validate these changes.”