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

nautil.us

191–200 of 306 posts

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

#191
post #175
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends who distributed the screenshots.

Probably one of the 314 other people in the group felt offended.

The go-to in that type of situation is "Jail them".

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

#192
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. That's not quite how it works over there, at least, if people who live and work there are to be trusted.

There are a number of stories about surveillance over the years. [0] Here's one about a BBC reporter who was found in 7 minutes using their CC system. The situation with the [1] Ugyhurs and crack down on Muslims. Also the [2] Social Credit system which is tied into a number of difference services.

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/13/china-cctv-bbc-reporter/ [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/china-surveill... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7UKYUTke58

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

#193
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.

How does it handle people who are unable to speak?

probably as well as china deals with people in wheelchairs

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

#194
I would highly recommend following @0xDUDE on twitter, he always posts surveillance leaks in China. He found out that WeChat conversations are sent to the local police depending where the user is, and there are employee farms manually reading the conversations... The same way factory workers in China are paid 2 dollars a day, employee farms for conversation/data reading are doing the same...

1. Link for @0xDUDE is: https://twitter.com/0xdude?lang=en 2. Link for a great thread regarding China spying: https://twitter.com/docligot/status/1111293482629398528?lang...

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

#195
post #182

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.

You can DM people on TikTok just like most other social networking apps.

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

#196
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sort of prove my point. And don't generalize people suffering from bouts of anti-Americanism to all Americans or all the West.

I'm not sure I understand how I "prove your point". Why are "victims of communism" allowed to generalize from their experience, while "victims of capitalism" are not?

Because "communism" is both an economic and a political ideology, while "capitalism" is only an economic one.

And before the nitpicking starts, I'm well aware that monied interests can influence democratic politics. That does not make an economic system a political system. It would be like calling democracy an economic system.

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

#197

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.

We're in the phase now where we celebrate TikTok for being a launchpad for 15-minute celebrities who inspire us to buy more crap.

Once it becomes passe, or once the app has a major security breach, that's when the Chinese origins of the app will be front and center in every news pub.

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

#198

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 gian…

If every one of my friends and even my employer used an app to conduct business and I refused to get it no matter how much they tried to tell me to because I was concerned about my privacy I'd be ostracized. This did happen to me with Facebook to an extent, and Facebook isn't nearly as much of a mammoth as WeChat. Stop pretending it's a choice.

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

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sesame credit score is used when you use to book a hotel online, if you score is higher you don't need a deposit. It linked to how much money you can borrow from some services. It is basically a credit score similar to what you get from credit agency.

> It is basically a credit score similar to what you get from credit agency With the salient difference of judging one’s political views and affiliations. Like if FICO took into account the number of times you praised or criticised the President.

Ummm, no. That’s not true.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sesame credit score is used when you use to book a hotel online, if you score is higher you don't need a deposit. It linked to how much money you can borrow from some services. It is basically a credit score similar to what you get from credit agency.

I don't stay in hotels that expensive (I generally have to pay up front) very often and since I'm not Chinese I don't have access to most loans here either.

I used it to borrow a power bank without deposit, or a shared bike. I am not suggesting anything about you, just trying to explain when sesame score can be used.
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