With over 10 million downloads on Android and millions more on iPhone, it has become the must-download app for overcome loneliness during confinement. Houseparty is a social network that allows users to create virtual houses, to chat, play online or toast with friends by video chat within the limit of eight participants.
Launched in 2016 and bought by the owner of Fortnite Epic Games in 2019, Houseparty has been very successful since the implementation of containment measures in many countries of the world, where it has attracted a large audience with its very open approach to online messaging.
Unlike services like Messenger or WhatsApp, a user only needs to open the application so that their contacts can access their video chat. In the same spirit, friends of friends can join conversations launched by their contacts on the platform and chat with users who are not part of their address book. And a notification is sent every time contacts connect or create a virtual house.
Gender mix and large data collection
But there are a number of considerations to keep in mind before using Houseparty. As recalled BFMTV Tech this monday march 23, the application is very greedy in personal data. After the telephone number, she requests access to a contact book so that she can put the user in touch with those close to her. It is possible to associate his Facebook and Snapchat contacts but also those of his telephone directory. What can prove problematic thereafter.
“Since the application has access to the complete directory, it is not only friends who can be invited to join a conversation, it is all the contacts saved in the directory, and possibly the contacts of these contacts,” explains at RTL.fr, Suzanne Vergnolle, doctoral student in law at the University of Paris-II Panthéon-Assas, who studied privacy policy from Houseparty. “Directory may contain business contacts or people we know very little about. One can imagine that among these contacts, some could make unwanted interruptions in conversations “.
In addition to account data, the application collects a lot of information related to the device used – such as device type, IP address, telephone operator, MAC address or IMEI number – but also the location where users are located. It also collects data using standard tracking tools – such as cookies, web beacons and web beacons – and claims to analyze people’s social interactions. “This fairly large collection of data by default seems fairly disrespectful of privacy users of the platform, “says Suzanne Vergnolle.
Houseparty can access conversations
The specialist in the protection of personal data also observed an astonishing provision. “The third section tells us that the company allows itself to access the conversations that take place on its platform,” she explains. The application leaves the right to reuse information, including “ideas, inventions, concepts, techniques or know-how disclosed therein”, “For all purposes”, to develop, manufacture and market a good or service, for example. Such a provision is “quite unusual and legally very questionable”, says Suzanne Vergnolle
Especially since thee conversations on the platform are not encrypted end-to-end, only partially, which gives rise to fears of risks linked to the security and confidentiality of exchanges because “Houseparty can access all of the communications made on its service on its servers”. The specialist therefore recommends not to use this tool for sensitive professional or personal conversations, but rather to favor encrypted platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp and FaceTime or strictly professional tools.
Some options to strengthen confidentiality
That said, it is still possible to use Houseparty for entertaining use while strengthening the confidentiality of the service. You can activate for this private mode, so that the discussions that you create later are locked and only accessible to the people you have chosen.
You can also activate the option “Sneak into the house” so that your contacts are not alerted each time you log in. It is also possible to use a false name and a false birthday, to receive emails, SMS and notifications from the editor of the application.
Finally, you can, in theory, ask the application to delete your personal data by writing (in English) to this address: [email protected]. But the application seems to assume the possibility of keeping them in archives or backup copies, a provision contrary to the European framework on the protection of personal data. Contacted by RTL.fr, Houseparty has not yet responded to our requests.
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