Investors have provided the audio app Clubhouse with fresh money, and growth continues. There have recently been new problems with data protection. Does the company have speed under control?
The management of the audio app Clubhouse has raised fresh money from investors. On the one hand, this is intended to cope with the rush of users over the past few months. Clubhouse wants to “welcome more users”, strengthen its infrastructure and “support” the providers of the discussions. The rapid growth meant that the servers were overloaded, and the algorithms were not designed for the high number of users. According to the company, around ten million users are currently on the platform every week. On the other hand, the capital injection should also serve to drive the growth course further. So far, Clubhouse has been above target in this regard: Clubhouse has “grown faster than expected,” the company said.
Success arouses desire
The audio-based social network app had already completed a financing round in January. As reported by financial news agency Bloomberg, Clubhouse is now worth around four billion dollars. That corresponds to around 3.3 billion euros and is four times as much as in January. The success of the app developed by Alpha Explorations in the USA last spring arouses desires and imitators. According to media reports, the news service Twitter is said to have recently been interested in a purchase, and Facebook is said to be working on a clubhouse clone. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg recently had a look in the virtual salon himself, and Tesla boss Elon Musk was also a guest – this of course increases the attractiveness of the audio offering. Listen to important people once: Many clubhouse users are likely to know these or similar wishes.
Privacy advocates warn
But the success story also has its downsides. Data protection advocates repeatedly express serious concerns. A relevant incident occurred only recently. In a hacker forum, data from 1.3 million clubhouse users emerged. Clubhouse denied being hacked. The data is publicly visible in the profile information that has been tapped in bulk, including name, user name, user ID, profile photos and contact lists. Sensitive data such as credit card information were not included. Such information could be used for targeted phishing attacks, warns the consumer advice center. The data can also be used to create fake accounts in social networks and practically carry out identity theft. The consumer association also criticizes the fact that conversations are recorded and evaluated on the servers in the USA. In addition, the app would have access to all saved contacts in the phone book.
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