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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)

#161

Post by ckozlowski »

chomp wrote: post #135
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…

I know you were referring to Google, that is why I made the point about Google. Xiaomi is a tech company with a personal data spying program and is worth maybe 50 billion, and supposedly the "4th most valuable startup in the world," if you trust Wikipedia. My point is that the valuation is based on the profit potential that investors see, not how ethical either company actually is. And both derive a non-zero amount o…

There's a big difference between Google exploiting private data to sell you more things, and a different company exploiting private data to hand over to a police agency that arrests individuals for having the wrong political views.

I'm not suggesting the former is without fault, and fault by one does not absolve another. But you're right in that these are two very, very different things.

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

#162

Post by yumraj »

itsoktocry wrote: post #75
yumraj wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Unless you get a target on your back, in which case the American company will provide the American law enforcement agencies with whatever data they want to take action against you and your family. Your assertion is just a variation of "if you're not doing anything wrong you shouldn't worry about spying".

> Your assertion is just a variation of "if you're not doing anything wrong you shouldn't worry about spying".

Really, that is what you got from my comment.

In the case of CCP it can even be who you are, as in Tibetan, Uighur and so on.. Or, a national of a different country that China wants to spy on, or a relative of someone that China thinks has a differing opinion from CCP and so on..

It's not even on the same planet, let along in the same ballpark..

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

#163

Post by subsection1h »

HNfriend234 wrote: post #113
walrus01 wrote: post #7

I truly don't understand, from a security and privacy perspective, why would anyone outside of China would voluntarily choose to run closed-source software from a company that's subject to domestic laws and regulations in China. The MSS is no joke. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=china+mss... This is the same reason that Zoom is banned at my workplace and many other partner companies. You've actual…

I use a xiaomi phone and the reason I use it is because it is significantly cheaper compared to a samsung or apple phone. Example: A $200 xiaomi phone is equivalent in specs to a $600 Samsung. Also it is likely the Chinese are spying on me indirectly (data collection where the chinses military can access the data if they want to) but I really have nothing significant on me that the Chinese would want to be concerned…

> A $200 xiaomi phone is equivalent in specs to a $600 Samsung.

Xiaomi phones have much higher audio latency than Samsung phones.[1] As a VoIP user, I would rather use an entry level Samsung phone (e.g., a $150 A02s) than a Xiaomi flagship.

[1] https://superpowered.com/latency

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

#164

Post by guerrilla »

monkeyingaround wrote: post #81
o_p wrote: post #69

Xiaomis are pretty good and cheap, funny that one would care about the browser (which is optional, as you can install any browser you want) while Google owns your entire OS, but China bad US good amrite?

i can't remember the last time i felt fear expressing my beliefs on my phone here in the USA so you tell me

I guess that means you're pretty mainstream then. Sucks for Muslims, anarchists, journalists, activists, etc.

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

#165

Post by yumraj »

AlexandrB wrote: post #106
yumraj wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Fair enough, if we want argue along those lines - if you're in country X, would you like to be spied on by your country's gov AND China?

I, for one, would prefer, if I have a choice, it to be just my Gov and not a foreign Gov that I consider to be hostile..

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

#166

Post by varjag »

chomp wrote: post #52
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.

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…

Re (3), explore why Russians themselves call them oligarchs in first place.

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

#167

Post by firebaze »

ckozlowski wrote: post #148
firebaze wrote: post #136

I use a Huawei matebook D14 as my personal device. Its primary use is in a WiFi-network (as in 99% of the time). Since I also use MS devices in the same network I log all IPs being accessed from my network ( https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wire... ) I'll leave the log results of accessed IPs as an exercise to the reader. Hint: no chinese/russian IP addresses are being accessed. I'd guess a lot…

I suspect that your point is that "a Chinese device doesn't mean it's reporting to China." I think it's good not to make this assumption. That said, I also think it's incredibly naive to think that a collection system wouldn't make use of a local proxy to mask the ultimate destination of the information. It's such a trivial task to do, and provides a host of benefits to obfuscate and sow doubt as to where the data is…

It's incredibly naive to assume NSA/* doesn't do the same, even if that affects your daily life as a human/business owner about as much.

I despise the chinese government - may it concern Uighurs or the treatment of Tibetans. Still I have a hard time believing none of my data collected by google is used by the US administration, which, as we know, is not always lead by a trustful person. Still, if I had to choose whom to embargo, I'd definitely choose china/russia.

Since it's so easy to cheat traffic, there are two options: only china/russia needs to cover traffic, or ...?

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

#168

Post by pagutierrezn »

rglullis wrote: post #140
HNfriend234 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a xiaomi phone and the reason I use it is because it is significantly cheaper compared to a samsung or apple phone. Example: A $200 xiaomi phone is equivalent in specs to a $600 Samsung. Also it is likely the Chinese are spying on me indirectly (data collection where the chinses military can access the data if they want to) but I really have nothing significant on me that the Chinese would want to be concerned…

> significantly cheaper compared to a samsung or apple phone. Shouldn't that be a huge red flag? Any time someone offers something too good to be true, it never is. > Also it is likely the Chinese are spying on me indirectly Why? > I really have nothing significant on me that the Chinese would want to be concerned with me. It's not just about you, dammit. [0] By accepting their offer, you validate their actions. You…

Everyone of yours statements is equally applicable to Chrome, right?

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

#169

Post by grishka »

names_are_hard wrote: post #134
grishka wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xiaomi phones are frighteningly popular here in Russia because they're very cheap. Like, a-phone-could-not-cost-this-little cheap. A 7000₽ (around $100) phone? Why not, seems legit! And not many people really understand what Xiaomi is actually doing to offset that cost. Heck, when you open the built-in calculator app in MIUI, it has a freakin privacy policy and refuses to operate if you don't accept that. Same for th…

Not defending Xiaomi in general, but it's worth mentioning that the stock calculator in MIUI (at least when I last used it) was much more than just a traditional calculator. It had all kinds of sophisticated functionality that goes beyond our arithmetic, such as currency conversion, which obviously requires network and an api that might very well be third party and require a privacy policy. So while I assume they're…

Uh. An API that provides currency exchange rates is a textbook case of a read-only API. Unless that privacy policy is the nonsensical "we receive and process your IP address" (or course you do, that's how the internet works, duh), it has no reason to have one because no data flows in that direction.

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

#170

Post by monkeyingaround »

guerrilla wrote: post #164
monkeyingaround wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i can't remember the last time i felt fear expressing my beliefs on my phone here in the USA so you tell me

I guess that means you're pretty mainstream then. Sucks for Muslims, anarchists, journalists, activists, etc.

as a muslim i can confirm you have nothing of content behind your ideology
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