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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

#261

Post by mstaoru »

m2zyi wrote: post #125
mstaoru wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, in this case the camera is run by Wechat and they have their own biometric database.

FaceID or TouchID 's information is truely own by IPhone,Wechat use camera can only take photo or video,but when u login, speak six number to wechat,this is own by Wechat.

Both Alipay and Wechat Pay have those fancy terminals now in coffee shops, where you need to smile to the camera to pay. No iPhone involved. To set it up they use the same database as for the account verification.

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

#262

Post by mstaoru »

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.

Step by step, my friend. We cannot expect the whole industry to shift overnight, but the shift to more paper bags, recycling, renewable energy is happening in China right now. Tier 1 cities are very tough on recycling right now, and most residential complexes had set up very good recycling guidelines since ~March, which are, surprisingly, followed by local residents. Next year they're opening a new nuclear plant nearby, and some wind turbines are being set up now along the coast. One step at a time.

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

#263

Post by sonnyblarney »

Barrin92 wrote: post #257
sonnyblarney wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are not going to get arrested in America for making a joke about George Washington. Enough with the irresponsible moral equivalence arguments. There are glaringly material differences between 'Google software scanning your mails to target ads' and 'the police having $2/hour folks reading private chats to arrest you for totally arbitrary reasons'.

>No, you are not going to get arrested in America for making a joke about George Washington. If someone leaks you joking about repeating a historical terrorist attack the chances that the police at least pay you a visit is very high, in the United States and other Western countries. There's actually a whole array of news articles you can find on your search engine of choice about arrests after people made social medi…

Yes, if you joke about 'murdering the head of state' - any reasonable state is probably going to look into it.

But in this case, joking about a historical event, inviting a foreign country to invade is way beyond reality, obviously.

So, if you invited the 'Germans to invade America' again, nobody will come knocking except the Twitter Nazis. (Pun intended).

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

#264

Post by mstaoru »

janekm wrote: post #92
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.

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...

FWIW they probably pay 4-6 rmb to SF. Their rates for commercial customers are much lower than for individual customers. Given the high rent, I bet this is still more efficient for them than running a 500+ sqm joint like Starbucks.

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

#265

Post by n1000 »

envolt wrote: post #185
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)

It’s weird. Nobody else in my company seems to have this issue. For me it is a mandatory step in the registration process.

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

#266

Post by dewey »

amaccuish wrote: post #216
dewey wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was there last month and it was almost impossible to get money on your WeChat account without a Chinese bank account. It was easy to fund my Malaysian WeChat account but the balance isn't transferable or usable in China. There's currently one remaining loop hole I know about which is to pay someone to send money via a red envelope / hóngbāo but it's getting increasingly harder. It's already asking you for a passpor…

What's the point of this though? Surely it hurts tourism to China? Wouldn't it be better if foreigners could easily use wechat pay?

I don’t have any numbers on that but it seems that external tourism isn’t a big priority for China. If it were they’d make sure that the Visa process is easier, at least the people at airport information counters speak English and other small things that tourists would encounter right away. This is just anecdotal but most tourists I saw were Chinese so maybe the percentage of non-Chinese tourists isn’t that high.

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

#267

Post by zwaps »

datumy wrote: post #260
zwaps wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am neither American nor Chinese, but there is a qualitative difference. In the USA, i can say whatever I damn please. In China, I can not talk about certain topics. Whether or not both CCP and FBI bug my phone, I do not know. However, China is super oppressive when it comes to freedom.

It sounds like you have never been to US or China.

I have been, though.

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

#268

Post by varjag »

low_poly_shiba wrote: post #151
varjag wrote: 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?

I never called myself a victim, and neither you are one. I know how places like China work, and it was you who asked me how do I know it.

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

#269

Post by Vinnl »

zwaps wrote: post #246
zachguo wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fed up with those people who think they understand China simply because they have read a sci-fi novel written by an Englishman before modern China has been founded. China's system is so complicated and so far from a heavy-handed police state.

I am neither American nor Chinese, but there is a qualitative difference. In the USA, i can say whatever I damn please. In China, I can not talk about certain topics. Whether or not both CCP and FBI bug my phone, I do not know. However, China is super oppressive when it comes to freedom.

> In the USA, i can say whatever I damn please.

While I think generally you're right, I wouldn't tell a joke that involves a bomb in certain places as well. (Not from the US, but given that this holds for the Netherlands, I expect that that's true for the US as well.)

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

#270

Post by yorwba »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #225
powerapple wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ummm, no. That’s not true.

Based on a documentary. Yes, it is. I'm also not suprised. A local TV guy did a travel guide for China, it was beautifull and he had gained access to a more secure facility ( a controversial dam that caused people to lose their house). No room for open questions ( had to ask it up front on paper, written). But when he asked a follow up question, the guide got really scared. You could just see it happen ( he was not a…

> Based on a documentary. Yes, it is.

If you want to cite a source, it's usually helpful to actually name it, instead of just asserting that it exists.

The rest of your comment is not relevant to the question of whether or not Sesame Credit takes political views into account.

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