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“Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

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Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#41

Post by pratio »

echopom wrote: post #14
dannyw wrote: post #5

If China wants to use protectionism to wage digital economy warfare, let's respond in kind. No more Wechat, TikTok, Alipay, or League of Legends or Valorant, until China gives equal treatment to foreign internet firms. Note: Valorant installs a kernel driver as part of the "anti-cheat" system; described by many as a rootkit: https://www.osnews.com/story/131665/riot-games-maker-of-leag... Valorant's parent company is…

> If China wants to use protectionism to wage digital economy warfare, let's respond in kind. No more Wechat, TikTok, Alipay, or League of Legends or Valorant, until China gives equal treatment to foreign internet firms. That's not how the US Judiciary systems works. You can't ban dozen of apps based on "suspicious behaviour". You need to start an investigation , then you need to collect proofs , then based on those…

I don't think we need to worry about western democracy when talking about a software company shopping your browser history. Apps and games have developed on all corners of the globe have done this and are doing this.

Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#43

Post by yorwba »

nomay wrote: post #34
Iolaum wrote: post #27

Apart from a lot of other issues mentioned here, this looks to me for a good argument of app sandboxing. It is a thing on mobile but not much on the desktop.

QQ comes with a bundled QQProtect.exe that can't be killed, QQ simply refuses to run without it.

The OP on V2EX mentioned[1] that they downloaded QQ from the Microsoft Store, specifically because it doesn't come with QQProtect. Didn't help, apparently.

[1] https://www.v2ex.com/t/745030?p=1#r_10067077

Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#44

Post by [deleted] »

meibo wrote: post #33
LockAndLol wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Google Chrome do that already (log everything) and still many people use it? And wasn't there a recent article about how programs couldn't be run on Big Sur because some server somewhere could verify the hash before it was ran? It was discovered because the OS slowed down to an unbearable speed except when running Apple programs. Signed app distribution won't solve this problem.

The difference is really that chrome is not a third party app doing it live to other browsers. Chrome hides this as legitimate value to users - when I type out an URL on my desktop, I will get auto complete for it and shared history on my phone and my laptop. It's a trade-off.

[deleted]

Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#45

Post by madsbuch »

alexmingoia wrote: post #11

This is the type of behavior Apple intends to prevent with their signed app distribution, loathed by so many here.

> This is the type of behavior Apple intends to prevent with their signed app distribution, loathed by so many here.

Just because something is a solution, it doesn't automatically make it good. I can _at the same time_say that it is problematic that people die in the traffic _and_ loathe banning cars altogether.

Letting Apple act as the internet court might help on some problems. But letting a commercial entity act as legislative, executive, and Judicial power in the software distribution realm is simply not a good solution.

Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#47

Post by temeritatis »

Sebb767 wrote: post #32
jeswin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China exported $125B worth of mobile phones. Cutting Google Play Store off would seriously harm their ability to sell outside - I wonder why Google doesn't play hard ball.

Because the Chinese market is extremely large. Cutting them of will hurt them in the short term, yes, but it will also force the development and popularization of local alternatives, which will hurt Google very much in the long term - see their recent examples with CPU development and Huawei's own Playstore.

This is not aimed personally at you; i've always had a problem understanding why big companies need to dominate all the market? If i have a successful local business, it's not hurting me that others do as well. I don't need to expand all over the globe to be successful. What's wrong with google not operating in china? Why can't google flourish as it is without dominating the market? I think you get my point here so i won't give more examples. I never did understand why people and organizations want to accumulate extreme amounts of power and wealth either. Like the bad guys in many movies. Of course that would defeat the purpose of the movie, but i often found myself thinking that if they spent half of that energy to the betterment of them selves (and others), it would probably be a pretty sweet life.

Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#48

Post by viktorcode »

alexmingoia wrote: post #11

This is the type of behavior Apple intends to prevent with their signed app distribution, loathed by so many here.

I respectfully disagree. Apple prevents that kind of behaviour by requiring user to explicitly grant permission to a program trying to access certain parts of file system.

It has nothing to do with signing.

Re: “Tencent QQ caught scraping all browser history on Windows”

#49

Post by kangaroozach »

temeritatis wrote: post #47
Sebb767 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the Chinese market is extremely large. Cutting them of will hurt them in the short term, yes, but it will also force the development and popularization of local alternatives, which will hurt Google very much in the long term - see their recent examples with CPU development and Huawei's own Playstore.

This is not aimed personally at you; i've always had a problem understanding why big companies need to dominate all the market? If i have a successful local business, it's not hurting me that others do as well. I don't need to expand all over the globe to be successful. What's wrong with google not operating in china? Why can't google flourish as it is without dominating the market? I think you get my point here so i…

Stock prices are tied to valuation which is based on expectations of growth. If you lower you growth goals and therefore projections, then the valuation tanks and the stockholders value drops. Management and employees are motivated by equity in companies like Google and therefore rely heavily on growth potential.
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