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(Bloomberg) -- A week after popular audio chatroom app Clubhouse said it was taking steps to ensure user data couldn’t be stolen by malicious hackers or spies, at least one attacker has proven the platform’s live audio can be siphoned.
An unidentified user was able to stream Clubhouse audio feeds this weekend from “multiple rooms” into their own third-party website, said Reema Bahnasy, a spokeswoman for Clubhouse. While the company says it’s “permanently banned” that particular user and installed new “safeguards” to prevent a repeat, researchers contend the platform may not be in a position to make such promises.
Users of the invitation-only iOS app should assume all conversations are being recorded, the Stanford Internet Observatory, which was first to publicly raise security concerns on Feb. 13, said late Sunday. “Clubhouse cannot provide any privacy promises for conversations held anywhere around the world,” said Alex Stamos, director of the SIO and Facebook Inc.’s former security chief.
Stamos and his team were also able to confirm that Clubhouse relies on a Shanghai-based startup called Agora Inc. to handle much of its back-end operations. While Clubhouse is responsible for its user experience, like adding new friends and finding rooms, the platform relies on the Chinese company to process its data traffic and audio production, he said.
Read more: Clubhouse Lives On Perilously in China: Fully Charged
Clubhouse’s dependence on Agora raises extensive privacy concerns, especially for Chinese citizens and dissidents under the impression their conversations are beyond the reach of state surveillance, Stamos said.
Agora said it couldn’t comment on Clubhouse’s security or privacy protocols and insisted it does not “store or share personally identifiable information” for any of its clients, of which Clubhouse is just one. “We are committed to making our products as secure as we can,” the company said.
Over the weekend, cybersecurity experts noticed that audio and metadata were being pulled from Clubhouse to another site. “A user set up a way to remotely share his login with the rest of the world,” said Robert Potter, Chief Executive Officer of Internet 2.0 based in Canberra, Australia. “The real problem was that folks thought these conversations were ever private.”
The culprit behind the weekend audio theft built their own system around the JavaScript toolkit used to compile the Clubhouse application. They effectively jury-rigged the platform, said Stamos. The SIO said it didn’t determine the origin or identities of the attackers.