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WeChat and the Surveillance State

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Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#161

Post by nomnomray »

ngcc_hk wrote: post #157
nomnomray wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love wechat. sticker: gifs and emojis all shares the same sticker format. It has natively features for taking, editing and converting photos and videos directly into stickers. Generally, i find memes work a lot better in wechat. reliability: voice and video calling is buttery smooth. I've taken wechat calls internationally between china, taiwan, us, canada, australia and france. The service is always great even in…

A Slave loves his/her/its master. Blessed and behold, you are totally owned. A totally connected world is hell on earth. Just in case you do not know.

people like you make earth hell.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#162

Post by sho »

fromthestart wrote: post #160
sho wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on. Pollution is highly localised. Yeah, there's a few bad cities but it's a big place and 99% of it is fine. And no clean water, really? That will be news to the billion plus inhabitants who haven't realised they're dead yet from lack of clean water, sixth sense style. Nit picking aside - that surveillance state is maybe 5 years ahead of the west. I'm continually amazed that western governments have allowed…

>That will be news to the billion plus inhabitants who haven't realised they're dead yet from lack of clean water, sixth sense style People in places like Flint aren't dead either.

They've organised alternate supplies - as have any Chinese who don't trust the local water. As you would expect.

I'm glad you mentioned Flint though. I assume most Americans here know about Flint's issues - but they realise the USA is a big place and that's only one town. Well, China's a big place too. Yeah, it can improve, a lot. But this godforsaken hellscape that people seem to imagine all the time is just not real.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#163

Post by godelski »

dheera wrote: post #77
pishpash wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use it for what it's intended for, chitchatting about nothing of lasting consequence. If you have genuine thoughts, use something else.

Easy to say, but hard to do when the people who you genuinely value your relationship with don't use anything else. It's also not intended for "chitchatting about nothing of lasting consequence". It's specifically intended to basically be your entire life. In China you can pay all your bills, manage your bank account, buy plane, train tickets, hotel reservations, donate to charities, rent bikes, shop online, order fo…

> Easy to say, but hard to do when the people who you genuinely value your relationship with don't use anything else.

Honestly most of my friends talk and organize on Facebook. I deleted mine. Things haven't really changed much. I just get texts when something is happening. Your friends are still your friends without whatever technology facilitates your social sphere.

My experience, and many others that I know, is that I don't seem to be majorly affected by a lack of a social media account. So I always get confused when people say that WeChat/Facebook/whatever IS their social life. If you don't like it, just dump it. Your friends will still be your friends. If they don't then I'm not sure you can consider them friends. I mean it is kinda ridiculous notion when you consider how surface level and superficial it is to kill a relationship because you don't use a specific communication medium.

You aren't going to lose your relationships. You aren't going to miss out on events. Your friends will still be your friends.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#164

Post by pishpash »

dheera wrote: post #149
rsync wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I absolutely hate WeChat (not necessarily just for the reasons in the article, but many other technical reasons) but I'm forced to use it because all of my friends and my entire social life happens on it." Genuinely curious - is there a non-app (ie., plain SMS) interface to wechat ? There is a plain SMS interaction layer for groupme and because I host my own phone service at twilio, I have total control over messagi…

I've already deprecated SMS as a form of communication with me, and auto-trash all SMS with an appropriate deprecation warning returned to sender telling them to e-mail me instead. So an SMS/WeChat gateway wouldn't help (it doesn't exist anyway). But that aside it's less about it being app. It's more that: - It's a walled garden that is difficult to build plugins upon. About 10 years ago with QQ/ICQ/AIM/MSN/Gtalk/Zep…

Its only benefit is its ubiquity, showing the strength of the network effect and the herd mentality of humans. I totally agree that it's a step backwards if your goal is actual communication of information. Even forum boards were better.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#165

Post by magpi3 »

AnthonyWnC wrote: post #142
komali2 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I hadn't heard that the United States government was wholesale surveilling its population, with no oversight, with an open tap in Facebook data, and using that information to imprison people for thought crimes such as having a religion. False equivalence doesn't pass for me. The USA has surveillance issues, but it isn't the prc.

5 eyes, Prism, ATT fiber tapping, windows NSA key etc.. And how do you manage to conveniently forget about Snowden revelation?

Still not even close. The U.S. has a constitution that gives its citizens legal recourse when they feel the government has gone too far and gives them some basic rights. The U.S. has elections to hold leaders accountable. China has none of these things.

I admit the U.S. govt probably envies the system China is putting in place and would love to emulate it, but the system of checks and balances built into the American political and legal system makes that impossible.

It is specifically the lack of checks and balances in China that makes what is happening so frightening. Their surveillance state is really just beginning. I wonder just how dystopian it will become in the next ten to twenty years.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#166

Post by pishpash »

godelski wrote: post #163
dheera wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to say, but hard to do when the people who you genuinely value your relationship with don't use anything else. It's also not intended for "chitchatting about nothing of lasting consequence". It's specifically intended to basically be your entire life. In China you can pay all your bills, manage your bank account, buy plane, train tickets, hotel reservations, donate to charities, rent bikes, shop online, order fo…

> Easy to say, but hard to do when the people who you genuinely value your relationship with don't use anything else. Honestly most of my friends talk and organize on Facebook. I deleted mine. Things haven't really changed much. I just get texts when something is happening. Your friends are still your friends without whatever technology facilitates your social sphere. My experience, and many others that I know, is th…

I think this is a case of you don't know what you're missing. That's not a bad thing, but it doesn't mean you're not missing anything.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#167

Post by baby »

whatshisface wrote: post #135
polskibus wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's because in reality cashless is easy compared to clean water and no pollution for masses?

Cashless is also not desired by Americans, many of whom like cash. Stores are fine with taking it (no transaction fees after all), there are zero privacy concerns, and counterfeiting is not really a problem.

Never understood that. Living in the UK for example you never have to cary bills. Light wallet, so much more practical, I hate places that only accept cash.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#168

Post by baby »

sho wrote: post #159
neuralzen wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I met a guy who said he lived in Shenzhen a while, and said that J-walking would get you an automatic deduction from your wechat pay account, assuming you were in front of a camera.

Let me turn that around for you. Would you like it if people who turned or changed lanes without indicating were reliably and automatically fined? Because I sure would. The law is the law. If it's a good law, then its efficient, universal, automatic enforcement should be a good thing. If not - then it's the law that needs to be changed. You're complaining about the enforcement - but what you actually don't like is th…

I'd like it if cars would take less space, and would give the right of way to pedestrians jay walking anywhere. Fuck cars.

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#169

Post by ex3ndr »

dheera wrote: post #77
pishpash wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use it for what it's intended for, chitchatting about nothing of lasting consequence. If you have genuine thoughts, use something else.

Easy to say, but hard to do when the people who you genuinely value your relationship with don't use anything else. It's also not intended for "chitchatting about nothing of lasting consequence". It's specifically intended to basically be your entire life. In China you can pay all your bills, manage your bank account, buy plane, train tickets, hotel reservations, donate to charities, rent bikes, shop online, order fo…

Sorry, but isn't every messengers try to load links to make fancy previews?

Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State

#170

Post by whatshisface »

baby wrote: post #167
whatshisface wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cashless is also not desired by Americans, many of whom like cash. Stores are fine with taking it (no transaction fees after all), there are zero privacy concerns, and counterfeiting is not really a problem.

Never understood that. Living in the UK for example you never have to cary bills. Light wallet, so much more practical, I hate places that only accept cash.

What if every store accepted both cash and cards?
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