Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use • Hacker News Board

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#161

Post by brnt » Fri, May 01, 2020, 6:23 AM UTC

neurostimulant wrote: post #122

Xiaomi produces one of the best bang for your bucks hardware in the market. Their software is crap though. Ads in the system apps, ui customization that arguably looks worse than stock android, and now blanket tracking like this, though it was always pinging their tracking servers frequently. My pihole logs pretty much full with blocked xiaomi requests until I flashed the phone. Best thing to do when you got an andro…

LineageOS (and a few other Android distros) are the only mobile OSes I trust and use. Not any different with laptops and desktops BTW: I don't trust any preinstalled OS and not any distro for which I can't browse the source.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#162

Post by TomMarius » Fri, May 01, 2020, 6:25 AM UTC

nickff wrote: post #96

thelittleone wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents option would likely get around privacy regulations in some countries. So they can do the “much more work” you mentioned and also sell decent hardware for zero down on a contract, getting a bigger total market and more surveillance info.

Well the EU and Canada seem to be terrified of putting a foot wrong with the CPC, so my guess is that Chinese companies will violate people's privacy until it becomes so blatant that they get a polite request to tone it down (and obfuscate the collection).

The EU is not terrified, it (or rather, the local politicians) is corrupt; the politicians are willing to go as far as kissing the Chinese flag but that does not say anything about us, the citizens.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#163

Post by e13bdde8c206707 » Fri, May 01, 2020, 6:53 AM UTC

This has seriously made me paranoid about buying any kind of tech from China. I am a long time ThinkPad user and might probably have brought the Fedora powered once as soon as it hit the markets here but unfortunately I'll have to think again. Dell is my second choice but if there is anything Snowden as shown, it is that neither US companies can be trusted. The problem is fundamentally different, we need tech that are more open and transparent.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#164

Post by raindropm » Fri, May 01, 2020, 6:56 AM UTC

cobookman wrote: post #149

raindropm wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is lately many banking app required you to use non-root phone, at least in my country. There used to be workaround, but it is not work anymore. I have Redmi phone and I hates it as soon as I found that there is ads in their rom. It's so disappointing. I mean, other Chinese brand have their own crapware yes, but ads? I then flash my phone to pure Pixel rom and never been happier, until the bank app incident ha…

Wow, didn't realize android got that bad recently. Makes me not want to leave the iPhone ecosystem. The only benefit Android had was the control. You take that away and make it a walled garden, its just an iPhone...but worse

I like overall quality of iOS but I still prefer Android though, you can do all sort of weird things iOS never allow. Just next time I'll choose whatever phones that gives me vanilla Android(as much as possible) Pure android is clean and work great, until vendor try to 'enhance' their phone with their apps and stuff.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#165

Post by Causality1 » Fri, May 01, 2020, 6:57 AM UTC

We need legislation that triggers automatic import bans when malfeasance of this magnitude is discovered. The only way to stop companies from doing this is financial disembowelment. Anything less just becomes the cost of doing business.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#166

Post by raindropm » Fri, May 01, 2020, 6:58 AM UTC

neurostimulant wrote: post #155

raindropm wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is lately many banking app required you to use non-root phone, at least in my country. There used to be workaround, but it is not work anymore. I have Redmi phone and I hates it as soon as I found that there is ads in their rom. It's so disappointing. I mean, other Chinese brand have their own crapware yes, but ads? I then flash my phone to pure Pixel rom and never been happier, until the bank app incident ha…

Actually, I installed LineageOS but skip installing root binary (it's an optional step when flashing LineageOS) as I don't need root anymore. Without root I can still use my banking app because Google safetynet is passing on my phone.

Interesting. I'll check out some more information about it.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#167

Post by itronitron » Fri, May 01, 2020, 7:03 AM UTC

...by purchasing a license to use our phone, you (the user) consent to send all data about about your use of our phone while using our phone that you have been granted a license to use by us

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#168

Post by ThatPlayer » Fri, May 01, 2020, 7:15 AM UTC

cobookman wrote: post #149

raindropm wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is lately many banking app required you to use non-root phone, at least in my country. There used to be workaround, but it is not work anymore. I have Redmi phone and I hates it as soon as I found that there is ads in their rom. It's so disappointing. I mean, other Chinese brand have their own crapware yes, but ads? I then flash my phone to pure Pixel rom and never been happier, until the bank app incident ha…

Wow, didn't realize android got that bad recently. Makes me not want to leave the iPhone ecosystem. The only benefit Android had was the control. You take that away and make it a walled garden, its just an iPhone...but worse

You still have more control compared to iPhone where you cannot change your default SMS messaging app, or even your default browser. And you have no choice in browser engine either. And it's hardly a walled garden when I can sideload any app on any Android phone. Xiaomi even has their own store that's not Google Play.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#169

Post by ThatPlayer » Fri, May 01, 2020, 7:20 AM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #92

fastball wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checkm8 is a tethered exploit, so probably not super useful if you want to sideload another OS and not have a bad time.

I remember back in the days of the iPhone 3G(s?) there was an attempt at a battery-powered dongle that could re-jailbreak a phone in the field in case of a reboot. The same technology could be built into a battery case or similar, not to mention recent technological advances mean it can be done in a small package the size of a Lightning connector or a Yubikey and you can carry it on your keyring.

There's a similar product for Nintendo Switch jailbreaking: NS-Atmosphere or RCMLoader. Since it's a bigger device, some of them are soldered internally using a Trinket M0

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#170

Post by t-writescode » Fri, May 01, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #114

mekster wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to add that your choice is damaging the innocent content creators.

Maybe those innocent content creators will think twice at contract renewal time, then.

Or just ... buy the DVD / other content type legally available?