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

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#251

Post by JoeAltmaier » Sat, May 02, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

tekknik wrote: post #250

arcturus17 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are not? Look at how they bent the knee with Huawei and ZTE. Also can’t figure out how to produce hardware in their home soil, as much as they’d like to.

oh we can most definitely manufacture a phone, but since we don’t have slave labor and questionable human rights it costs us more to do so.

Automation seems like the answer. Surprised it hasn't come to that already.

Hand-labor today is used as an interim solution, when the scale doesn't justify bespoke automated assembly line. When factories are 'brought back' to the West, its because they scaled up and automation is now affordable.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#252

Post by djrogers » Wed, May 06, 2020, 1:59 AM UTC

izacus wrote: post #173

djrogers wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For those more expert than I, is Apple any better in this regard? Yes, and unequivocally so. Apple is not know to track browsing behavior, search terms, etc. Most of the data that your phone collects about you either remains in your phone (that’s why they’ve been shipping with NPUs for several years - they do A lot of machine learning in device rather than in-cloud) or is analyzed using differential privacy mechani…

You ignored iCloud though, which isn't E2E reencode and uploads personal photos, contacts, location and some other data to Apple. They can decrypt this data and regularly share it with the governments. So your post is kinda misleading when you leave these details out - it creates a false sense of safety. (And before someone complains: Yes, Apple is infinitely better at privacy than Xiaomi. We still shouldn't hide pri…

a) iCloud doesn’t upload location data, b) it’s completely optional, and c) I was answering a question, not giving a dissertation on Apple’s privacy practices (which I fairly well actually qualified to do).

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#253

Post by JetSpiegel » Wed, May 06, 2020, 6:40 PM UTC

solarkraft wrote: post #214

rjzzleep wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH Xiaomi also sent out dev devices to custom rom developers. Well technically it's Poco the Xiaomi subsidiary[1] Is there any word on whether that is true for european region phones as well? From what I remember they disabled certain functionality like Face Unlock in the EU. Not sure if it was due to privacy or patents, but given the GDPR I wouldn't be surprised if it was due to privacy. [1]: https://www.xda-devel…

Oh! That explains why my F1 has such good ROM support, it was a major reason for buying it (another one is cheap replacement parts). They still disrespect ROM users: You have to go through a convoluted process involving Windows software and a Xiaomi account AND wait 3 days to unlock the phone - but that's way down from the 6 weeks I've read about on other Xiaomis, so you can be sure I'm not going to buy one of those.

The worse part is requiring a SIM card on the phone the whole time, hoovering your IMEI and phone number in the process.

Re: Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use

#254

Post by Hnrobert42 » Fri, May 08, 2020, 4:41 AM UTC

morsch wrote: post #189

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-handedly casting Google and Apple in the same lot with CPC sponsored phone companies is absurd.

Maybe so, but you're not making much of an argument of it.

I will not be baited into distinguishing between the two. As noted, saying they are the same on its face. If you believe they are the same/similar, I encourage you to write an article about it and post it for a discussion here on HN. If you let me know, I’ll happily respond there. Otherwise, I will assume you agree with me.