Houseparty

Oh Houseparty, you're not really a privacy-focused app, at all. Houseparty earns our *Privacy Not Included ding because we were able to use a weak password of ‘12345’ to access the app. We noted this in our review last year and they've made no changes to strengthen their password requirement since then. Houseparty has an easy to read, and worryingly vague, privacy policy where it lays out how it collects and shares a whole lot of personal information on its users. Houseparty uses tracking tools to collect data through the social media or gaming platforms you might connect. The company says they don't sell your data, but they do share it with third-parties and with their parent company, Epic Games. This data can then be used for marketing. Users aren’t able to limit much data collection, and they note that blocking cookies may stop the Chrome extension from working properly. Also, there are few protections to stop people from crashing your party. If you don't lock your party, people you don't know can join. Even if you do lock it, anyone else in the room can unlock it or invite their friends in, which could open the door for creeps and weirdos to come in the room and harrass you. We recommend users create a 'private party' or at least turn on the 'stranger danger' feature which warns users in a room that a “stranger”, or a friend of a friend, has joined the party.