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Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

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Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#101

Post by Sebb767 »

nottorp wrote: post #20
okl wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, here's the link to the LineageOS device list with installation instructions. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#xiaomi

But why would you have to root and reflash it? Couldn't they, you know, respect their customer instead?

They're basically the only company allowing you to root a phone without loosing warranty. And it's not like other manufacturers come without FB installed as system app - yes, they're a bit worse on privacy by default, but it's not like they're the black sheep within a pile of innocents.

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#102

Post by michaelcampbell »

danpalmer wrote: post #16

This paragraph stood out to me: > The intention here seems to be that aigt is the timestamp when the ID was generated. So if that timestamp deviates from current time by more than 7776000000 milliseconds (90 days) a new ID is going to be generated. However, this implementation is buggy, it will update aigt on every call rather than only when a new ID is generated. So the only scenario where a new ID will be generated…

> If we assume that Xiaomi aren't literally trying to spy for a government

Is that even allowed by Chinese law?

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#103

Post by AlexandrB »

missedthecue wrote: post #82
cwhiz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Xiaomi worth billions of dollars, not 1.4 trillion, but way more than most companies. I'm referring to Google with that valuation. >We don't commonly call billionaires who live in the middle east, china, and other non-western countries "oligarchs", do you know why? Propaganda? An oligarch is a rich person with a lot of political influence. Sounds like an average billionaire to me. >People call out Google all. the. t…

How much political influence do you think someone like Bezos really has? Everyone in washington hates him. No one wants to do favors for him. They drag him in front of congress do get a bunch of soundbites to play next election cycle. They win elections on shutting down his headquarter plans. They want to break up his company, raise his taxes on unrealized capital gains, they want to force him to divest his personal…

On the flip side, there were municipal governments literally giving Amazon powers over taxation and spending[1] to get them to set up their headquarters in their city. I think this is quite a bit of political power myself.

[1] https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/amazon-city-benefits-sec...

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#104

Post by asien »

aroman wrote: post #11

I recently bought a Xiaomi phone (Poco m3) for development. I was shocked to learn that in order to enable USB debug mode in developer settings, I needed to BOTH : 1) make a Xiaomi account with and 2) insert a SIM card to the device (!) Is that not insane? Other people seem to think so too: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/186052 Apparently the only alternative to this is rooting the device, which may break it.

> Is that not insane?

Yes I personnaly find it very schocking.

Bought a Samsung A20 for the same purpose, no need for a sim or any sort of dev account.

Plugged the usb cable and a few minutes later my nativescript app was running.

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#105

Post by aboringusername »

Are [computers] spyware? Yes, they are (2000) should be the title.

If you use a computer, smartphone or IoT device then yes, it collects data, just as Facebook runs ads.

What's collected these days:

Your social circle,

every time you connect to the mobile network, when, which tower you connected to, tx/rx bytes, who you phoned, where the callee is located

Whether you're in a car, walking (sensors)

Whether your sleeping...(a recent Google blog post talked about a new "sleep tracking" API).

You generate data as a human, interested parties (governments) collect that and will store it for the rest of time. I suspect there's a database of every URL visited by any human in the last 20 years.

This is not surprising and should surprise nobody.

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#106

Post by AlexandrB »

yumraj wrote: post #51
cwhiz wrote: post #29

Chinese browser collects your data? Spyware. American company collects your data? $1,400,000,000,000 valuation. This reminds me of how we call Russian billionaires "oligarchs" but we just call American billionaires...billionaires.

Chinese browser collects data for CCP which will use it for spying and for action against you, your family and your country. American company will collect data to show you ads and profit. Are they really same?

> American company will collect data to show you ads and profit.

7 years later and it's like Snowden never even existed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#107

Post by Craighead »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #102
danpalmer wrote: post #16

This paragraph stood out to me: > The intention here seems to be that aigt is the timestamp when the ID was generated. So if that timestamp deviates from current time by more than 7776000000 milliseconds (90 days) a new ID is going to be generated. However, this implementation is buggy, it will update aigt on every call rather than only when a new ID is generated. So the only scenario where a new ID will be generated…

> If we assume that Xiaomi aren't literally trying to spy for a government Is that even allowed by Chinese law?

No

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#108

Post by sammorrowdrums »

danpalmer wrote: post #16

This paragraph stood out to me: > The intention here seems to be that aigt is the timestamp when the ID was generated. So if that timestamp deviates from current time by more than 7776000000 milliseconds (90 days) a new ID is going to be generated. However, this implementation is buggy, it will update aigt on every call rather than only when a new ID is generated. So the only scenario where a new ID will be generated…

Genuinely, I really want to see Purism succeed and increasing numbers of competitors in that space, because we need tools that don't require so much blind trust. Whether caused by inept software devs, scope for malicious code / backdoors in firmware, analytics spyware, and whether this stuff is well intentioned or not, if it can be abused, it will be.

Open source and verifiable down to the firmware is the only chance we have at any real level of trust, otherwise as is always apparent in these conversations, it often falls otherwise to who you think could compromise your device and making your bed with it, like USA not China or vice versa

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#109

Post by phh »

That's amongst the reason I do my AOSP GSI ( https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases... ; Generic System Image, an Android that works on pretty much all recent Android phones).

Xiaomi devices are usually at sweet spots price/performance-wise (not really great hardware imo, but well). With custom ROMs (including my GSIs, but other custom ROMs are fine as well), buy a phone for their hardware, not for their software. (BTW my daily driver is a Pixel 5... not running Google adwares! Only high-end-ish device that fits my hand).

However, Xiaomi devices are bricks for like a month, because before being able to install your own software, you need to be approved (connecting a smartphone on a Windows computer), and it's only once you get your smartphone that you can install your own software.

Re: Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are (2020)

#110

Post by godelski »

cwhiz wrote: post #76
chomp wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.) Xiaomi worth billions of dollars, not 1.4 trillion, but way more than most companies. 2.) People call out Google all. the. time. There's an article here weekly about dumping Google, finding alternatives, praying for antitrust regulation, etc. 3.) We don't commonly call billionaires who live in the middle east, china, and other non-western countries "oligarchs", do you know why? Why are you so upset about Xiaomi g…

>Xiaomi worth billions of dollars, not 1.4 trillion, but way more than most companies. I'm referring to Google with that valuation. >We don't commonly call billionaires who live in the middle east, china, and other non-western countries "oligarchs", do you know why? Propaganda? An oligarch is a rich person with a lot of political influence. Sounds like an average billionaire to me. >People call out Google all. the. t…

> I don't think I have ever seen a mainstream publication refer to Google apps and services as spyware. Which of course is what they are.

You seem pretty active on HN so I'm a bit skeptical that you honestly believe this. But I'll respond in good faith anyways. Here's the first result from Google (didn't even use DDG)

- (Washington Post) Goodbye, Chrome: Google’s Web browser has become spy software[0]

But since you're active I'm sure you know about The Social Dilemma, Snowden, etc. I've seen episodes on 60 Minutes, CNN, Fox, and pretty much everywhere that calls criticism to companies like Google and Facebook. Does China get called out more often? Yeah. Why? Because we're in a cold war with them. But still in many of these pieces I've seen them make slights at American tech companies. Things like saying that what they do is bad, but what China does is worse.

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-...

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