Are those USB port hubs safe to use?

I bought one of those Belkin USB 4 port Hubs so that I can have more USB ports on my iMac.
I have the one that needs external power.
I was curious as to wether they can cause any damage to my iMac's ports? Here I am using 4 ports on this hub which is connected to a port on the iMac that is designed for 1 device right? Not 4 devices.
So can using 4 devices via a hub connected to a USB port designed to have 1 device to it, cause any damage to the ports?
Also - what about data corruption?
If I have 4 drives connected to the USB Hub, transferring files between them and to the computer, could this cause data to become corrupt?
So far I've had no problems but I use these USB ports to transfer large amounts of iimpotant data and cant afford anything going wrong..
-Frank

It is perfectly safe (and encouraged by Apple) to use USB hubs. In fact, USB will support up to 127 peripherals chained together over one USB port. The only concern may be if a hub loses power in the middle of a file transfer, or gets disconnected. But that is the same for everything.
I have used USB hubs for many years without any problems.

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