The murky space of ‘social audio’

NEWS While apps like Clubhouse give a push to innovation, privacy and data rights remain out of focus.

Clubhouse is a new social networking app which has surpassed 2 million Android downloads across the world last month.

The app provides a unique audio medium through which its users can interact.
Although apps like Clubhouse give a push to innovation, privacy and data rights remain a concern for the app.

The present app is based on the audio medium as compared to well-established social media and messaging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube which employ text, images, video, or a combination of three.
The app does not have any separate texting feature nor the option to create elaborate online profiles. It focuses purely on audio-based interaction.
Users of the app can choose their interests and can join various ‘clubs’ which have groups of members that share a common interest. There are rooms hosted by different clubs.
A person can even start a club of their own, or ‘drop-in’ into any room mentioned on the Home or Explore page, as a listener or a speaker during a discussion.

Regulation challenge

Audio rooms are likely to throw up new challenges for data regulators as audio-based interactions are faster and in real time, mirroring real-life far closer than text-based interactions.
There are other issues of cyberbullying and trolling, driven by sexism, racism and communalism, which can be even more damaging.

Privacy concerns

App sends notifications to the followers of a person whenever they join any room. It also allows a person to join any room that their friends are a part of. This may allow anyone to ‘stalk’ a person as they move from room to room.
This is in contrast to popular platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others, which allow browsing in relative invisibility. This awareness, along with a fear of being judged, might limit people from exploring the app’s content.

Lack of end-to-end encryption

Clubhouse temporarily records the audio in a room while the room is live for purposes of investigating the incident and deletes it when the room ends. This provides potential for misuse of data. Also such recordings are done without consent of the user.
The platform’s practices are violative of numerous provisions of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) like rules on security, proportionality, necessity principles and confidentiality of communications, consent for processing of personal data, and provisions on data protection by design and by default.
According to a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory, the back-end infrastructure of Clubhouse is supplied by a Chinese start-up called Agora hence Chinese government accessing raw audio as well as other security flaws can’t be ruled out.

India lacks a stringent data protection law hence its users are far more susceptible to data breaches and privacy violations.
The issue of encryption is already in public debate. The Central government and WhatsApp are already locked in a legal battle over the Information Technology Rules, 2021 which require breaching encrypted channels to trace the originator of messages.
Clubhouse seeks permission to access users’ contacts, which is a significant privacy concern.
- If a user chooses not to share their contact list, they are not allowed to send invites to others.
- In turn, the contact list is shared not only with app developers but also with people in a user’s contact list.
There is no mechanism to control who can follow who, which further affects privacy and contributes to the ‘harassment’ culture.
Hence, India needs to frame rules to ensure the Right to privacy which is a fundamental right under article 21 of Indian constitution.

Clubhouse has grown popular during the COVID-19 pandemic at the time when millions of people are stuck in their homes.
It has promised to revolutionise social media and communication through audio rooms. It represents an attempt to innovate and provide an alternative to traditional platforms.
For the average user, Clubhouse might seem like a great, lightweight app with an innovative premise. But there are issues in the apps in terms of privacy and data protection like traditional platforms.
It is true that the market of ‘social audio’ is likely to soon become a battleground. However, the medium won’t truly progress until innovation of the app is not balanced with respect for privacy, security and data rights.

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-murky-space-of-social-audio/article34774019.ece

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