The Clubhouse was made perfectly for the pandemic. People are not going out and are desperately looking for social connections and entertainment. The app provides both in a way, while capitalizing on the attraction of celebrity influencers on the platform.
It is also based on one of the most effective strategies for generating buzz and enthusiasm – scarcity. To join the Clubhouse, you need an invitation from someone who is already a member. In addition, they must have their phone number and allow the Clubhouse to have access to iPhone contacts. No access, no invitations.
From a commercial point of view, it certainly makes sense that the Clubhouse is taking this approach. Building a social graph from scratch is very difficult and requiring users to upload their contact lists is the most effective way of determining connections.
However, there is a problem. As always, the problem comes down to finding the right balance between protecting user privacy and using data to provide the best user and company experience behind the application.
In this sense, it is worth considering that the Clubhouse has some policies that are not exactly favorable to privacy. Even worse is the fact that you have to do a little bit of research to understand what these policies really are. I contacted the Clubhouse several times, but I did not immediately receive an answer to my questions about how it uses the data.
1. The Clubhouse is recording your audio.
One of the “characteristics” of the Clubhouse is that it is ephemeral. You can’t hear it later, or even pause the room you’re in. You have to appear live to participate in the experience. This is something that sets it apart from, say, podcasts, which are recorded and can be heard at any time. You cannot even record conversations at the Clubhouse.
Except, the Clubhouse can, and record what you say. The app’s privacy policy says that Clubhouse rooms are registered:
Just for the purpose of supporting incident investigations, we temporarily record audio in a room while the room is live. If a user reports a breach of trust and security while the room is active, we retain the audio for the purpose of investigating the incident and then delete it when the investigation is complete. If no incident is reported in a room, we exclude temporary audio recording when the room ends.
This means that if someone reports a problem, everything that happened in the room is recorded and saved. And, the Clubhouse is unclear about what happens to it, unless it is saved for the company to make a determination. It does not say who can hear or under what conditions.
2. You cannot delete information that other people share about you.
Even if you didn’t create an account, if someone you know did, there’s a good chance the Clubhouse will already have your phone number. That’s because the app encourages users to load the entire contact database to send invitations. You can only invite someone who is in your contacts and does not include the ability to share only specific contacts. It’s all or nothing.
In addition, not only can these friends have shared your contact list, but if they connect their social media profiles, that information will also be collected. The Clubhouse specifically says that when you “create your account and / or authenticate with a third party service like Twitter, we may collect, store and periodically update information associated with that third party account, such as your lists of friends or followers.”
What if, say, you have no interest in the Clubhouse? There is still no mechanism to have any personal information about you, whether through a phone number or other social networks like Twitter or Instagram.
3. You cannot just delete your account.
In fact, even if you have an account, you cannot delete it without sending an email to a support account. There is no option anywhere in the app to delete your account, and there are also no instructions on what to do if you want to delete it. You must send an email to “[email protected]” to request the cancellation of your account and wait for someone to take action.
4. They can share your personal information without notifying you.
One of the biggest questions around the Clubhouse is how it intends to make money. Looking at the privacy policy, it is clear that it will likely involve some form of advertising or sponsorship system. To prepare for this, the Clubhouse is making it clear that “it can share personal data with our current and future affiliates”.
Okay, but the same section makes it clear that the Clubhouse “may share the categories of personal data described above without notice to you”. This means that you have no right to know that your personal information collected by the Clubhouse is now being used outside the Clubhouse.
5. The Clubhouse is tracking you.
The privacy policy says that it uses cookies, pixels and tracking technologies to monitor what you do at the Clubhouse and across the web, although they are not currently monetizing the app. This is confirmed both by the privacy policy and by the traffic monitoring, which shows that you use activity tracking and analysis tools to understand what you are doing with the application.
The company’s privacy policy also explicitly states:
We may share Identification Data and Activity Data on the Internet with social media platforms and other advertising partners who will use this information to provide you with targeted ads on social media platforms and other third party websites – under certain regulations, such sharing may be considered a “sale” of Personal Data.
It seems very clear that the Clubhouse is preparing to monetize the platform it is building. This is fair – every company must have a plan to make money. If that plan includes monetizing the activity and data of its users, I think we can all agree that it must be frank and transparent about this fact.