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WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

nautil.us

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Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#91

Post by SeanAppleby »

maimeowmeow wrote: post #71
bamboozled wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious, do people even enjoying drinking nice / real coffee anymore when drinking from Starbucks or have it delivered and sipping it at your desk or in the elevator, or is this just some kind of habit like smoking? Why not just wash down a caffeine pill with warm glass of water for the kick and move when time pressed?

If such a pill was ever created, I surmise that the coffee industry would collapse overnight.

You used to be able to buy a half kilo brick of caffeine on prime for like $30.

That's enough caffeine to give you a heart attack 100 times over, it would last you forever.

It didn't affect the coffee industry because drinking coffee is an enjoyable process, not a one dimensional addiction around caffeine

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#92

Post by janekm »

mstaoru wrote: post #32
jcbrand wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to Starbucks is not the same as having coffee delivered to your home, especially not if you walk there.

In China everything is delivered by electric scooters, delivery people get paid for it, more coffee shops can survive because otherwise they would have to provide more space which is very expensive, and most coffee is delivered in a paper bag with a paper cup stand.

Paper bag... Not always. Coffeebox deliver it in a giant cardboard gift box surrounded by reflective thermal bubble wrap. Felt like I was paying more for the packaging than the coffee... Luckin I suppose do go for the paper bag and pay a fortune for immediate delivery to ShunFeng. The joys of VC funded coffee businesses I suppose...

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#93

Post by arnvald »

ConfusedDog wrote: post #47

> If it wasn’t for the fact that I grew up in London and use a VPN to jump the great firewall to keep in touch with my friends at home and use Google, I could go entire days without leaving WeChat. I wonder what VPN people use in China to access Google. When I was there last month, I couldn't find a single one that worked for more than a few days.

I've been to China a couple of times and ExpressVPN works most of the time for me. However the most reliable way to have a decent connection was Algo VPN deployed to AWS. It was far superior both in terms of reliability and in terms of speed.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#94

Post by ubercow13 »

drubbo wrote: post #62
mstaoru wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In China everything is delivered by electric scooters, delivery people get paid for it, more coffee shops can survive because otherwise they would have to provide more space which is very expensive, and most coffee is delivered in a paper bag with a paper cup stand.

The paper cup won't be recycled though, and electricity isn't pulled from thin air.

If you went to the coffee shop yourself, it would probably be on your own electric scooter anyway. And you'd take your coffee away in the same paper cup.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#95

Post by kingkawn »

jcbrand wrote: post #19

> At 9:27, once I’ve brushed my teeth, answered a few messages, and wiped the sleep from my eyes, I order a coffee through WeChat. There’s a payments window on the app, and when you click on it you see various options, some proprietary to WeChat and some which are independent apps that run on WeChat’s platform. I open the Meituan delivery app and scroll through all the coffee options around me. I order an Americano.…

Cmon cmon, in nyc people have been calling the bodega to order anything and everything for decades, including single cups of tea.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#96

Post by ConfusedDog »

arnvald wrote: post #93
ConfusedDog wrote: post #47

> If it wasn’t for the fact that I grew up in London and use a VPN to jump the great firewall to keep in touch with my friends at home and use Google, I could go entire days without leaving WeChat. I wonder what VPN people use in China to access Google. When I was there last month, I couldn't find a single one that worked for more than a few days.

I've been to China a couple of times and ExpressVPN works most of the time for me. However the most reliable way to have a decent connection was Algo VPN deployed to AWS. It was far superior both in terms of reliability and in terms of speed.

Thanks! I will try out Algo VPN. I had no idea AWS works in China.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#97

Post by ubercow13 »

markplindsay wrote: post #86
adinobro wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find Alipay easier to use for payments and it is easier to set up. If you don't want to chat I would use it instead.

Can you set up Alipay with a non-Chinese bank account or card? It works great for Chinese people and foreign residents of the PRC who have a bank account. However, my experience as a tourist was that it was impossible to link my US credit card using the PRC version of the app downloaded while in China.

Yes I tried recently and it seemed impossible without a bank account. You can link a foreign card but not actually use it for normal payments. You may be able to use it only on tabao or something. WeChat pay is not usable at all without a Chinese bank card.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#98

Post by ubercow13 »

zrobotics wrote: post #88
yoz-y wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have created a WeChat account years ago and I can not actually use it for payments. I don't know why it is but the wallet option never appears.

We hat payments used to require a Chinese bank account, so we're essentially inaccessible to foreigners. This is secondhand knowledge, I've never used it, but I have heard this has changed. Perhaps since the account was created while this restriction was in place, the option was never enabled?

It's still not possible. If you have a foreigner WeChat account it's possible to enable the pay feature, but not possible to sign up for it without a Chinese bank card.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#99

Post by baybal2 »

markplindsay wrote: post #51
catherd wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash still works exactly the way it always has, (almost) nobody is going to turn down your business because you don't pay by an app.

I was in China (Beijing and Wenzhou) in April. I had NO success finding a taxi in Beijing—the only way to get a ride was to use an app like Didi Chuxing. I was able to install and use it just fine. The problem was that it is impossible to link a non-PRC payment method to it. The same is true for WeChat Pay or Alipay—you've got to use a Chinese bank account or card as a source. I was not able to find a way around this…

I think Didi does accept international visa cards.

> despite over an hour of experimenting with the apps.

You can link some HK and South African credit cards

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#100

Post by foozed »

NotPaidToPost wrote: post #60
foozed wrote: post #45

> It knows my biometric information; it knows the very contours of my face. I was under the impression that Face ID does not leak such information to whatever app is using it?

This has nothing to do with FaceID, which isn't mentioned in the article. WeChat has its own face recognition system.

Ah ok, i thought the author meant FaceID in the passage:

> I have my WeChat linked with the facial recognition scanner on my iPhone

was not aware that WeChat has its own system. They don't get to use the "special" FaceID sensors/scanners though right? Just the camera?

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