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Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

reuters.com

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Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#321

Post by intricatedetail »

beerandt wrote: post #67
gpderetta wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was stupid enough to buy a Xiaomi phone without enough due diligence. Aside from all spying that is going on, the software is abysmal. The problem with replacing the OS is that I believe most banking apps I use will stop working. Might just need to write this phone off.

Banking has to be the dumbest "security" industry there is. Restrict apps, but can still log in via browser. I have one bank app that actually says to screenshot a payment screen for your records, while blocking screenshots via app policy.

Banking is known for skimping on IT staff, hiring cheapest possible workers from 3rd world countries and essentially running sweatshops.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#322

Post by tehjoker »

adventured wrote: post #309
tehjoker wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the erosion in the bill of rights here, I suspect things are on a similar playing field. The main difference is the US government only censors using indirect means or by attacking the providers of information like Julian Assange. Did we forget that the NSA is collecting most of the traffic on the internet?

> Given the erosion in the bill of rights here, I suspect things are on a similar playing field. Not even close. Ready? Joe Biden is suffering from worsening dementia. It was obvious before he took office. He's incompetent for the office. His aids constantly have to protect him from the public spectacle of his declining mental condition. The media also constantly does their part to artificially shield him. Biden was…

Very few of us can read Chinese (which explains why no one treats China like a country made of people), but I expect that in a country of a billion people many people have all kinds of rude opinions for and against the government expressed all over the internet.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#323

Post by laravel92 »

https://www.nksc.lt/doc/en/analysis/2021-08-23_5G-CN-analysi...

Whole report is worth a read, but page 22 is where this "censorship" is discussed. Given this is HN I think some of you would be interested in the technical specifics in order to give a proper, informed opinion here.

The censorship involves blocking certain personalized ads within some of the core Xiao Mi apps by filtering political keywords. The keywords are all in mandarin, so ads that would be blocked would be Chinese ads. The list of keywords seems to be controversial political statements or news organization based on the report, including a pro china newspaper. The code is only run in China regions, but is stored on all these phones. Technically a standard software update could modify the code to remove that block.

I understand concerns about censorship are high, but logically I don't see the concern here; that is if you're not in mainland China. If you're in mainland China the wrong personalized ad can get you into trouble so this very elementary ad censorship is necessary, but this is about the EU region. It's bold to assume they'd allow this to be run in other regions after the user updated the apps, there's just no reason too, nor is there anything particularly invasive or malicious going on here that is different from other smart phones, based on the technical report.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#324

Post by jiggunjer »

ggktk wrote: post #203
gpderetta wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was stupid enough to buy a Xiaomi phone without enough due diligence. Aside from all spying that is going on, the software is abysmal. The problem with replacing the OS is that I believe most banking apps I use will stop working. Might just need to write this phone off.

This is why I still have my iPhone around. I know that one day my banking apps will just stop working. For now, Magisk Hide does the job. Next time when I'll be looking for a new Android phone to buy, stock Android will be a hard requirement. I was stupid to pick my Xiaomi phone for it's hardware, I should've just gone with a Motorola.

wouldn't it make more sense to have an open(able) bootloader as a hard requirement? What if your phone, regardless of OS, never gets updates?

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#325

Post by kelnos »

hef19898 wrote: post #37
halfstar91 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And based on recent discoveries it sounds like Xiaomi should be trusted less than others.

As stupid as it might sound, I do trust Pixel phones, and an hypothetical iPhone running a different OS, the most of all alternatives. If one want's a smartphone, if not just take a 20+ year old dumb phone. Or BlackBerry.

Good luck getting that 20 year old phone to connect to any modern wireless network. I don't think anyone is running a 2G network anymore.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#326

Post by hnick »

concinds wrote: post #278
beerandt wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking has to be the dumbest "security" industry there is. Restrict apps, but can still log in via browser. I have one bank app that actually says to screenshot a payment screen for your records, while blocking screenshots via app policy.

Bank websites in some (developed, European) countries restrict you to 6-8 digit passwords (not alphanumeric), and don't have a 2FA option like Facebook or Google do. It's a massive joke.

Many must also store them in plaintext as well, or something like it, because the operator has to be able to confirm the spoken password for telebanking.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#327

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

throwaway4good wrote: post #178
belter wrote: post #152

From the shared PDF page 23... "It has been established that during the initialisation of the system applications factory-installed on a Xiaomi Mi 10T device, these applications contact a server in Singapore at the address globalapi.ad.xiaomi.com (IP address 47.241.69.153) and download the JSON file MiAdBlacklistConfig, and save this file in the metadata catalogues of the applications. A list of applications for whic…

Is it me or is this an extremely clumsy way of doing censorship? Why not do this at network or server-side level? Why not use some kind of hash (ala Apple'e proposed child pornography hunter)? In this design, everyone would have to have this plain text configuration file ... also other brands (Oppo, Huawei etc.) would have to have it. What if it needs an update? Suppose the hui muslims starts causing trouble ... Or i…

> Why not do this at network or server-side level?

China doesn’t control the network/servers in Lithuania and other countries. Doing it client-side gives them the power to extend their reach.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#328

Post by PontifexMinimus »

ignoramous wrote: post #206
throwaway4good wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it me or is this an extremely clumsy way of doing censorship? Why not do this at network or server-side level? Why not use some kind of hash (ala Apple'e proposed child pornography hunter)? In this design, everyone would have to have this plain text configuration file ... also other brands (Oppo, Huawei etc.) would have to have it. What if it needs an update? Suppose the hui muslims starts causing trouble ... Or i…

I guess it comes down to, why bother when the simplest solution works ? Make no mistake: As and when they get caught out doing such things, the sophistication of their implementation is bound to increase, in response to it. Money is no object for state-actors and mega-corps.

> the sophistication of their implementation is bound to increase

You're right about this, including with backdoors. Electronics from China must be treated as treacherous computing devices that obey the orders of the Chinese Communist Party.

If the West was sensible, we simply wouldn't buy any electronics from them.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#329

Post by FpUser »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #8
EveYoung wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to sound paranoid, but won't even LinageOS phones have to run closed-sourced firmware and drivers?

Correct, its entirely possible they could be doing more insidious stuff at the firmware level, but dumb keyword checking is almost certainly implemented in userspace. I don't think you can trust any proprietary firmware out there, its just a question of which you trust less than the others.

>"its just a question of which you trust less than the others."

Simple. I do not "trust less". I just do not trust. My phone is a phone. No Internet activity. I spend enough time in front of my desktop, dragging another computer anywhere I go is the last thing on my mind.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#330

Post by paul7986 »

PontifexMinimus wrote: post #328
ignoramous wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it comes down to, why bother when the simplest solution works ? Make no mistake: As and when they get caught out doing such things, the sophistication of their implementation is bound to increase, in response to it. Money is no object for state-actors and mega-corps.

> the sophistication of their implementation is bound to increase You're right about this, including with backdoors. Electronics from China must be treated as treacherous computing devices that obey the orders of the Chinese Communist Party. If the West was sensible, we simply wouldn't buy any electronics from them.

Or manufacturer any product from there...why does the world continue to be stupid on China and pump up their economy by having the majority of their goods manufactured there? Its going to continue to bite us and everyone in the butt.
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