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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

#101

Post by La-ang »

jcbrand wrote: post #19

> At 9:27, once I’ve brushed my teeth, answered a few messages, and wiped the sleep from my eyes, I order a coffee through WeChat. There’s a payments window on the app, and when you click on it you see various options, some proprietary to WeChat and some which are independent apps that run on WeChat’s platform. I open the Meituan delivery app and scroll through all the coffee options around me. I order an Americano.…

Lol.Those poor people tracking him on behalf of the CPC on Wechat must be also making the same assumption, but they have bills to pay :D

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

#103

Post by adinobro »

ubercow13 wrote: post #97
markplindsay wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you set up Alipay with a non-Chinese bank account or card? It works great for Chinese people and foreign residents of the PRC who have a bank account. However, my experience as a tourist was that it was impossible to link my US credit card using the PRC version of the app downloaded while in China.

Yes I tried recently and it seemed impossible without a bank account. You can link a foreign card but not actually use it for normal payments. You may be able to use it only on tabao or something. WeChat pay is not usable at all without a Chinese bank card.

I think you are right. I only used a foreign card for Taobao. I don't think it works for normal purchase...

I'll try it tomorrow and see if it works.

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

#104

Post by ubercow13 »

arnvald wrote: post #93
ConfusedDog wrote: post #47

> If it wasn’t for the fact that I grew up in London and use a VPN to jump the great firewall to keep in touch with my friends at home and use Google, I could go entire days without leaving WeChat. I wonder what VPN people use in China to access Google. When I was there last month, I couldn't find a single one that worked for more than a few days.

I've been to China a couple of times and ExpressVPN works most of the time for me. However the most reliable way to have a decent connection was Algo VPN deployed to AWS. It was far superior both in terms of reliability and in terms of speed.

I tried this recently (Algo with wireguard) and it was probably the most reliable way, but still blocked very quickly on some ISPs, for example it never worked through my China Telecom phone.

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

#105

Post by ubercow13 »

markplindsay wrote: post #51
catherd wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash still works exactly the way it always has, (almost) nobody is going to turn down your business because you don't pay by an app.

I was in China (Beijing and Wenzhou) in April. I had NO success finding a taxi in Beijing—the only way to get a ride was to use an app like Didi Chuxing. I was able to install and use it just fine. The problem was that it is impossible to link a non-PRC payment method to it. The same is true for WeChat Pay or Alipay—you've got to use a Chinese bank account or card as a source. I was not able to find a way around this…

You can link a foreign VISA card to Didi and pay with that easily. I did this in April this year. Actually it was the only thing I was able to pay for without cash while in China.

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

#106

Post by ubercow13 »

ohithereyou wrote: post #55
yesforwhat wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still take Visa, and don't insist on an authoritarian government's surveillance app.

What do you call the CCTV cameras everywhere other than "an authoritarian government's surveillance"?

Really?

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

#107

Post by nullwasamistake »

adinobro wrote: post #84
adamsea wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is different because in China I doubt there would have been any investigative reporting about the government and AT&T. And while AT&T doesn’t seem to have done this, other companies such as Apple have enacted privacy measures which directly contravene the stated wishes of the government - but which are legal. In China, I believe the way it works is, whatever the government wants becomes legal. The US is far from p…

One of the biggest and more interesting difference is that the US government wants to keep these things secret and investigative reporting finds them. In China, they want this information public because they want people to know that they know and self regulate - Panopticon. The cynic in me looks at the US as a country controlled by companies while China is a country that controls companies. I don't know if it makes t…

Yeah right, in China if you make the wrong thing public you disappear.

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

#108

Post by ghaff »

avip wrote: post #76
bamboozled wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious, do people even enjoying drinking nice / real coffee anymore when drinking from Starbucks or have it delivered and sipping it at your desk or in the elevator, or is this just some kind of habit like smoking? Why not just wash down a caffeine pill with warm glass of water for the kick and move when time pressed?

It’s a habit and an addiction. But among the available addictions it’s one of the best.

People have told me that, for them, if they don't get their morning coffee that get symptoms like headaches. For me, it's mostly just a habit to have tea or coffee in the morning and relax before starting real work. I like it, but if I'm traveling and there's a line out the door at Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, I'll probably just walk on past. I don't really care that much.

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

#109

Post by jshowa3 »

jcbrand wrote: post #19

> At 9:27, once I’ve brushed my teeth, answered a few messages, and wiped the sleep from my eyes, I order a coffee through WeChat. There’s a payments window on the app, and when you click on it you see various options, some proprietary to WeChat and some which are independent apps that run on WeChat’s platform. I open the Meituan delivery app and scroll through all the coffee options around me. I order an Americano.…

Even worse, could you maybe leave your room and go get a coffee? It literally would've taken you the same amount of time if you did just that depending on how close the coffee place is, and I would guess it isn't far.

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

#110

Post by mc32 »

rjsw wrote: post #64
mc32 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that is makes much difference, but the Stasi were DDR socialist East Germany.

There is a TV series based on Ian Kershaw's work on Nazi Germany [1]. One Gestapo office had not been able to destroy their records and it was found that most arrests of people were done as a result of them being denounced by their neighbours not by any actions of Gestapo personnel. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nazis:_A_Warning_from_Hist...

I’m not surprised. Many totalitarian regimes set up systems where neighbors can report on “counterrevolutionary” activities in which an abusive system “gets abused” and people use it for personal revenge among other things.
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