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We Chat, They Watch

citizenlab.ca

261–270 of 555 posts

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I get "there" what would that be like? You are funny. But you don't know me.

> For me the best policy is just don't say anything that I would be too concerned about being shared You embrace state influence in full regarding your thoughts and words.

I embrace that virtually anywhere I post there are going to be some repercussions of doing so. For example, here I will be downvoted if I post something that people don't like.

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#262
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This narrative of false equivalency is dangerous, IMO. WeChat has been proven to be a heavily monitored and censored network. Whatever security failings iMessage and WhatsApp have, they pale in comparison to what's in place for WeChat.

The false equivalency also begs a deeper moral analysis. Let's assume the US government has as complete access to iMessage and WhatsApp as the CCP does to WeChat. The story doesn't end there, since you have to examine the nature of the entities that have access to your information. Would I prefer that access be held by the US Government, which for all its faults is extremely engaged with and integrated into the globa…

I would prefer the country that I don’t live in and doesn’t have authority over me to have this data.

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#263
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just visited that site. The concerning thing is the site isn't spam and offers a political view with photos/videos of real moments that may reflect poorly on joe . To censor that is crossing the line into censoring valid political speech.

Even the policy positions listed there are literally factual and backed with sources from CNN, NYT and government websites. There is no remotely plausible reason for that site to be blacklisted by facebook.

Maybe Russians made it?

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#264
post #138
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with several aspects of your depiction of the US's "robust court system" (especially in the case of mass surveillance). There have been several attempts by citizens to sue the US Government for their illegal and indiscriminate surveillance programs, but have been stonewalled for years by government lawyers arguing that such cases should not happen in public courts (where they could be held accountable) due…

> But the key question is -- do you live in or have any connection to China? If not, then I would go with the CCP surveillance because there is no obvious mechanism for such surveillance to harm you directly. Tell that to the forcibly disappeared political dissidents, or to the Uyghurs who are being "re-educated" as we speak. And remember, even if you're not connected to China now , that can always change in the futu…

US military uses meta data for drone strikes,

> In 2014, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden said in a public debate, “We kill people based on metadata.”

> According to multiple reports and leaks, death-by-metadata could be triggered, without even knowing the target’s name, if too many derogatory checks appear on their profile. “Armed military aged males” exhibiting suspicious behavior in the wrong place can become targets, as can someone “seen to be giving out orders.” Such mathematics-based assassinations have come to be known as “signature strikes.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/how-...

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#266
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many Chinese-Americans have no choice when they need to communicate with family and friend living in China. No outside communication tools allowed in China.

"Have no choice" is false. Fortunately, email still works. As does any messenger through a VPN. Using Wechat is simply being complicit with censorship out of laziness.

hmm. I kinda disagree. For a lot of my relatives, WeChat == the internet. I honestly don't know if any of them have actual email addresses. So the alternative to WeChat is not talking to them at all.

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#267
Do you think they are using AI as they observe? Is some of this AI passive? Obviously they wouldn't be able to spy on everyone, or else they would need a lot of researchers haha

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#268
post #172

It's a feature not a bug. It was designed this way because it makes business sense. Why are Americans using WeChat I'm not sure.

I hate myself so much for having WeChat on my phone but there is no other way to chat with family :(

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#269
post #90

Honestly curious: knowing what everyone knows, why would any person who is not of Chinese origin, use WeChat? What's the use case?

It's really useful for note taking. I'm logged in on my phone and main computer, and as I watch lectures I can screenshot useful slides and send it to the file transfer contact. I can also send a text message, and later its search feature lets me go to the context where my query appeared. The messages are stored locally on your devices so the query is lightning fast (unlike if I were using slack). I'll use it to evic…

But why WeChat? Any other chat app will do the same, without being monitored by the Chnese government.

Re: We Chat, They Watch

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i literally don't get why the guy brought up race They brought up race because they were replying to a racist conspiracy theory amounting to them running Hollywood and pushing their agenda. Hacker News is one of the few sites - others being Stormfront, Daily Stormer, 8chan - where that kind of shit still flies.

It's a racist conspiracy that China is using its financial leverage to influence creative decisions by American-based companies? Why do you think the last few Transformer movies were made?

Go on then, explain how the last few Transformer movies were about pushing pro-Chinese propaganda.
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