Paris (AFP)

The French gendarme of personal data (Cnil) has opened an investigation into how the new darling of social networks, Clubhouse, uses the private information of its users.

"The investigation should make it possible to confirm" if the European legislation on data protection (RGPD) is indeed applicable to the company, and if this one respects it, specified Wednesday in a press release the CNIL, explaining that in the event of non-compliance, it could "where appropriate, make use of its own repressive powers".

Clubhouse, an American application, is an audio social network, which allows its users to come together in a virtual lounge to have a conversation.

Very recent - it was launched confidentially in March in Silicon Valley - it has seen its use boosted by the containment measures adopted around the world following the health crisis.

In France, it has been used in particular by the Minister for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebarri or Senator Nathalie Goulet to communicate directly with the public.

But the application has been the subject of questions about its use of private data of its users, or its technical security.

In France, "a petition gathering to date more than 10,000 signatures is currently circulating to alert the Cnil to possible breaches of privacy by the Clubhouse application", noted the Cnil in its press release.

- Other procedures in Europe -

To explain its procedure, the CNIL also refers to a complaint it received against Clubhouse, and which, according to a source close to the case, comes from Paula Forteza, a French MP very invested in digital issues.

On March 5, the MP posted a letter on Twitter to the CNIL asking them about Clubhouse's compliance with European data protection legislation, specifying that she was acting in concert with other parliamentarians like Albane Gaillot (Val de Marne).

"To register, the user must be sponsored by one of his contacts" identifiable by sharing his address book with the application, noted Ms. Forteza, for example.

The MP also recalled that according to a study by the Internet Observatory of Stanford University, "Agora Inc, a Chinese subcontractor of Clubhouse providing real-time voice engagement software, had found itself in possession of the numbers. identification of users and conference rooms ".

According to Ms. Forteza, several actions have been taken in Europe against Clubhouse's apparent breaches of the GDPR: she cited the German consumer organization VZBV, and a letter to the publisher of Clubhouse (the American company Alpha Exploration Co) of the Italian data protection authority GPDP.

The CNIL can launch a procedure in addition to the procedures already initiated because Clubhouse does not have an establishment in the European Union, which could determine which European gendarme is competent.

Clubhouse plays on consumers' appetite for applications using voice, which offers intermediate possibilities between applications using text and photos, and those using video.

The live chat network also played heavily on FOMO ("fear of missing out").

It allows the user to listen to or participate in conversations on the most varied subjects, sometimes with distinguished guests such as Mark Zuckerberg, the boss-founder of Facebook, or Elon Musk, creator of Tesla and SpaceX. .

For the latter, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people having been reached, secondary "rooms" were opened.

Clubhouse has been followed: Twitter is testing "Spaces" - audio lounges where 10 people can express themselves and address an infinite number of people, and the rumor is circulating about a similar product in preparation at Facebook.

© 2021 AFP