This may be kind of a dumb question, but what exactly is a "Chinese phone" and what is not? Is my current "Moto" branded phone (Lenovo) in the same boat and if not, why not?
Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
121–130 of 427 posts
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what kinda terrifies me about today's digital landscape. Now it's so cheap to hide surveillance capabilities (spyware, hidden microphones or cameras) that bad actors can just embed surveillance into every cheap device, hoping just by sheer numbers to get one into a sensitive area (e.g. Pentagon, Langley), and then remotely activate surveillance. With the computational capabilities of today's data centers, the…
> It's downright dystopian. It sure is. No stopping it now though. I'm old enough to remember being able to go to someone's place and expect privacy. These days literally anything can have an HD cam. Not great for paranoia but what can you do? > They could just be monitoring everyone, They are. Snowden already proved this, and we apparently got into that particular situation to keep pace with China. Not my job.
You are more powerful than you may realize. Work on supporting open source hardware and software options.
1. If you are a developer, consider buying a Pinephone [1] and contributing to the codebase.
2. If not a developer, you can submit bug reports and test fixes. Same for Purism Librem phone as well [2].
3. If you are neither, or have no time to spare but do have money, you can always purchase one for kicks or donate to open source like Ubuntu.
4. Finally if you have no time or money, simply upvoting privacy related threads on HN and talking with your friends about it helps too.
[1] https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve...
[2] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
edit: added numbering
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wonder why is anybody still surprised. This is the kind of claim that's deep in conspiracy theory territory until the smoking gun is uncovered, and once that's out (and only then) it becomes obvious and unsurprising.
No, it is not and has not been surprising for decades. In China there are no private companies. There are only companies that Chinese government lets you run as long as you cooperate with the government.
Even Jack Ma was put through the wringer after questioning the CCP publicly.
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly that, I could have phrased it better I think.
Yes, rather than "it doesn't matter", something like "typing in a phrase yourself isn't relevant as this feature is likely disabled for you". Believe that's why you're being downvoted. The way HN moves comments around also so yours was not right next to the comment you replied to, which didn't help.
Reading my comment again, I do see the problem... On the positive side, it teaches clear, consive writing. Even in quick, short comments. Or thinking, as far as that's concerned. I would have used the same words verbally as well.
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#125https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comments/pgk8y3/xiaomi_camer... Related, in this thread the OP discovered that he couldn’t take photos of an election ballot - they were being overwritten with a big green block.
this turned out to not be true - the comments pointed out that the overwrite is likely an app interpreting it as different image format, which had happened before, and OP didn't replicate the issue the next day in different light
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#126What happens when you type - Winnie the pooh ?
Whilst the loveable bear was somewhat banned online for a little time a while ago, it's now not actually banned in China in itself and is and has been a popular children's toy. Disney stores also exist and sell winne the pooh in China.
What's more accurate is the use of the bear with reference to their leader (who looks like him!)
A better string would be "tianamen square massacre"
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#127I wonder why is anybody still surprised. China has no qualms invading privacy of anybody. They will try any and every way to get whatever they need and they are pretty effective at it. Ever read about making business in China? What we call cheating or stealing is a standard business practice there. If you point it out they will back off and try somewhere else, ad nauseam. It is practically part of Chinese culture and…
> Why do you think "chinese" is practically synonym to "cheap and most likely defective"?
I think this is orthogonal to china stealing/copying. A lot of stuff from china is cheap/low quality because that's where you can cheaply mass produce plastic crap. But a lot of products from china are extremely high quality, world class level. You just have to pay more for it.
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#128I'm really not sure how serious I should take the threat of Chinese made electronics - almost all electronics are made China, not just Xaiomi and Hauwei.
My iphone is made in China by Chinese contract manufacturer (Foxconn) - does that mean all iphones could be compromised with Chinese malware? It could be possible, but how can you tell? Is it possible to observe network packets going form my phone to a Chinese or Chinese-allied country?
Genuinely curious, btw. Any feedback would be very appreciated.
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#129I think you would have to be mad to leave the stock ROM running on a Xiaomi phone, IIRC they were caught logging peoples browser history a few years ago. Several models have mainline LineageOS support, I'm running Lineage on my Mix 2S and hope to have years worth of updates going forward. The hardware is really good value as long as you install an non-tainted OS.
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.
Even apps like Netflix are configured not to be available on Google play if the device is not a certified one. That certification is lost AFAIK on rooting. I have two perfectly good android tablets that can’t run Netflix
Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's downright dystopian. It sure is. No stopping it now though. I'm old enough to remember being able to go to someone's place and expect privacy. These days literally anything can have an HD cam. Not great for paranoia but what can you do? > They could just be monitoring everyone, They are. Snowden already proved this, and we apparently got into that particular situation to keep pace with China. Not my job.
You are more powerful than you may realize. Work on supporting open source hardware and software options. 1. If you are a developer, consider buying a Pinephone [1] and contributing to the codebase. 2. If not a developer, you can submit bug reports and test fixes. Same for Purism Librem phone as well [2]. 3. If you are neither, or have no time to spare but do have money, you can always purchase one for kicks or donat…
I hate to say this, but OSS anarchism is not going to work. Most people cannot really work or live with those devices.
This is a problem that needs to be solved with legislation, lobbying, superPACs, and candidates who are not ethically flexible.
The solution to bad government is not "no government" and the solution to bad company behavior is better rules.