In february 2021, German and Italian regulators questioned Clubhouse’s data practices against the European data protection laws. On Clubhouse, users are asked to provide access to their address book in order to invite friends on the platform, and this does not play well with the GDPR.
Further concerns were raised by a research of the Stanford Internet Observatory. Clubhouse is powered by Agora, a Shanghai-based provider. The Observatory explains how sensitive data is transmitted through the app in plaintext. This means that Agora would have easy access to both user IDs and voice conversations.
Besides, in China the app is already blocked - in line with the country’s tight internet controls.