WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by ssnistfajen » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:07 PM UTC

scilro wrote: post #166

I find WeChat and its aggressively centralized model fascinating, and something to keep eyes on, but this article falls into the familiar trap of playing a bit loose with the facts when it comes to how the Chinese government surveils its citizens. For example, this is from article: >People are regularly arrested for messages they send in supposedly “private” group chats. In 2017, two people were arrested in Nanjing f…

>It's not clear to me why folks tend to advance the notion that Chinese citizens are under constant 1984-style 24/7 surveillance by their government.

Because that gets readers to click the article. They don't care how anything actually works.

Complex and nuanced analysis of sociopolitical issues does not make for sensational copy. When the boogeyman is the right one, people will believe anything said about it and swallow the story whole without question.

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

#182

Post by majia » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC

dawhizkid wrote: post #146

Why isn't anyone worried about TikTok? Yes, WeChat is largely contained to China, but TikTok/ByteDance is global and a top 10 app in the U.S. It would be naive to think that there isn't a backdoor to that app. And it's video. There's also precedence for this e.g. the U.S. forcing Grindr's Chinese owner to sell.

It seems you don’t have a good idea about what a backdoor is. A tiktok app can’t spy on your email or Facebook message.

It’s reasonable to worry about whatever data you give tiktok, but you should probably worry a lot more about Facebook or google which collects far more private data.

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

#183

Post by ssnistfajen » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

pwinnski wrote: post #85

adinobro wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WeChat is a private company owned by Tencent.

This is a distinction without a difference in China.

Except there is very much a difference. Being vulnerable to government pressure and being outright owned by a government are completely different things. Conflating these two is disingenuous and ignoring reality.

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

#184

Post by envolt » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

adinobro wrote: post #17

A few things worth being aware of Alibaba does not own WeChat but rather's it's competition Alipay. It does not have any access to WeChat data. So far the "social credit" on seems to be mostly based on how much you buy and it only seems to give you discounts to massively overpriced products (similar to a credit card reward system). You don't really download apps in Wechat but rather add a link more like a Facebook Ap…

> Also, everyone in China still accepts cash but you generally need correct change.

They do. But fake currency is very common in China. I was advised not to use cash. But since I'm not from China, I wasn't able to setup wechat pay account which is very common .

Most of the restaurants I had been to had currency checker machines.

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

#185

Post by envolt » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

n1000 wrote: post #40

Going to China soon and everybody tells me WeChat will help me a lot over there. However, I cannot create my account without a "voiceprint". It wants me to read some numbers to fingerprint my voice. Apparently I cannot skip this step and I am not very comfortable with that.

Ask someone from China for an Invitation to WeChat, it shouldn't be the case (Not sure if they have made it mandatory in last few months)

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

#186

Post by srcmap » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:16 PM UTC

dewey wrote: post #127

usaar333 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a loop hole or intentional? I'm guessing wechat doesn't care to optimize the visitor experience. Has it ever been different? Afaik, it's as limited as it always was; they just added identity verification.

It's a relatively new change, the latest big change was in April when they removed one other way of sending a red envelope. So it doesn't seem like it's intentional. https://lerner.co.il/2018/12/28/the-foreigners-guide-to-wech...

Might be related to some government regulations about money laundering. There is some problem with that in China.

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

#187

Post by ssnistfajen » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

Facebook, Google, and Apple would all do the same thing WeChat/AliPay did if regulations in the West moved faster and were more accommodating.

Nobody mandated the author to order delivery, follow social media, buy movie tickets, do online shopping, pay rent, use bikeshare, call cabs, etc, etc, etc. through WeChat. They are, for the most part, services owned by companies other than Tencent. WeChat just compiles a giant menu for users to link their accounts from these services into WeChat. These gateways exist because consumers find it more convenient than quitting WeChat and opening another app/website.

It's perfectly healthy to be concerned about the impact of centralized tech giants on our daily lives but so far all I'm seeing is fearmongering about this ever-more-elusive "dystopia" which coincidentally seems to only exist in a place that's easy for the English-speaking world to hate on.

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

#188

Post by CandyFace » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:32 PM UTC

close04 wrote: post #132

yborg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the corner coffee shops took 26 minutes to get me a cup of coffee I'd probably have to give it up entirely if I was really too lazy to spend the 90 seconds of effort in my kitchen that gives me a cup of coffee in about 5 minutes.

> It arrives at 9:53 If you can count on that arrival time (within minutes), you can just time it so it coincides with you getting out the door. No need to worry about forgetting the pot on the stove, or noisy grinders, etc. It's more likely you'll make a mistake in the morning especially if you're not a morning person and you're still half asleep and in a hurry. There's something for everyone.

This is why coffee machines with timers were invented.

5 min before I go to bed, all I have to do is prepare the coffee and pour water, then press the button to activate at the preferred time interval. At 7:15 am the machine will start and there we go, coffee ready. The machine also turns itself off within 45 min, so you never risk leaving anything running.

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

#189

Post by kombucha11 » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

yorwba wrote: post #121

adinobro wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wallet option only exists if you have a Chinese Wechat account (using a Chinese phone number).

It also appears if you somehow end up with a positive balance (e.g by receiving a red packet). I haven't tested whether you can actually spend that balance without having linked a Chinese bank account, though.

Yeah I could see the incoming red packet but i couldn't accept it, Eventually the transaction just voided itself. This was 6-8 months ago.

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

#190

Post by beenBoutIT » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:43 PM UTC

scilro wrote: post #166

I find WeChat and its aggressively centralized model fascinating, and something to keep eyes on, but this article falls into the familiar trap of playing a bit loose with the facts when it comes to how the Chinese government surveils its citizens. For example, this is from article: >People are regularly arrested for messages they send in supposedly “private” group chats. In 2017, two people were arrested in Nanjing f…

The Japan that raped Nanjing hasn't existed for decades, the comment is extremely offensive but can't be taken literally. This is the Chinese equivalent of an Israeli telling a Hitler joke, insensitive and offensive but not taken literally because the bad guy is long dead.