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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)

#281

Post by Roritharr »

I wonder more about their routers. For their specs they are extremely price competitive. Their AX6000 features a 2,5GBE Port, 4*4 5GHZ Antennas with supposedly 4800mbit/s max throughput over all clients for 120€ with shipping to the EU. The Netgear Orbi Pro is the only AP I could find that is similarly equipped and costs a handsome 400€.

The mostly chinese and russian reviews on YouTube seem to show those numbers to be at least not ouright lies, but people on the OpenWRT Forums talk about the Routers talking quite a lot back to China.

I really wish for somebody credible to do a teardown to look into these boxes.

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

#282

Post by latch »

esperent wrote: post #277
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…

Well, to play devils advocate, as a random Irish guy it seems like my choice is between Chinese companies spying on me or US companies spying on me. I don't see that huge a difference - although I do acknowledge there's a difference in freedom of speech and culture in the US, that applies to US citizens and when it comes to spying on people outside the US the difference is much smaller.

Similar boat, but I see a pretty big difference. Every time I have to fill out a FATCA form, I'm reminded of how much power the US government can wields over me - a non US citizen/resident.

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

#283

Post by toss1 »

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.

Ummm, Xaomi also has a high valuation, and Google gets called out on privacy all the time, including many times in this very discussion.

Russian Oligarchs are called that because they are about two dozen people who looted about 95% of the country's wealth and are basically a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a govt.

I can't tell of you are deeply clueless, trolling, or spreading dezinformatziya. Either way, perhaps you should remember this quote from famous American author Mark Twain: "It is better to remain silent and let people think you are a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

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

#284

Post by nuker »

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. Are they really same?

And your kids data. Grades, searches, web history, pics, diaries. I can totally see new private APIs for recruiters, banks, insurances - like personal assessment scores.

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

#286

Post by yibg »

lucideer wrote: post #14
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…

Could it be the same reason anyone outside of the US would voluntarily choose to run close-source software from a company that's subject to domestic laws and regulations in the US? The ECPA is no joke.

I would argue if you are American nor Chinese, the US has a greater ability to negatively influence your life. Chinese government has full control domestically but can’t (currently) do too much outside of their borders. The US on the other hand...

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

#287

Post by phkahler »

giantrobot wrote: post #255
sammorrowdrums wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Purism is never going to end up with fully open source baseband firmware. It's not going to happen because the radios are subject to several regulations which means customers can't be able to modify that firmware. There's going to always be a trust hole.

You can still make the code and tool chain open source. Then require a key to write to the device. Reading could be allowed.

This can work where everything is in the open except a private firmware signing key.

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

#288

Post by mohaine »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #270
sammorrowdrums wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 need tools that don't require so much blind trust Completely agree. > Open source and verifiable down to the firmware is the only chance we have at any real level of trust The hardware itself could be compromised though. There's just no way to know what's really inside these black boxes. https://youtu.be/_eSAF_qT_FY We'll never have real trust until we get the ability to fabricate our own processors in our own h…

This doesn't help completely unless you fabricated the fabricator on trusted parts as well. Unless you trust it there is nothing to prove that the fabricator isn't inserting back doors into whatever it prints.

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

#289

Post by nirui »

Roritharr wrote: post #281

I wonder more about their routers. For their specs they are extremely price competitive. Their AX6000 features a 2,5GBE Port, 4*4 5GHZ Antennas with supposedly 4800mbit/s max throughput over all clients for 120€ with shipping to the EU. The Netgear Orbi Pro is the only AP I could find that is similarly equipped and costs a handsome 400€. The mostly chinese and russian reviews on YouTube seem to show those numbers to…

Well, if you're patient enough to sit through all the Chinese text, here is the teardown (with picture) you've been looking for: https://www.acwifi.net/12621.html.

Also that router is currently on sell on JD.COM (https://item.jd.com/100017450204.html) priced at ￥599.00, about 80€ I guess.

There are rumors says Xiao Mi has somewhat subsidized their line ups with intention to create their own ecosystem. If true, that's one of the reason why their devices can have such low price.

On the other hand, ￥599 is not exactly cheap in China. Somebody can literally survive a entire month on that amount of money. A "normal" price for a "regular" router is around ￥70~￥200.

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

#290

Post by perryizgr8 »

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…

Because the products are literally 10x cheaper than the same thing from Apple or Samsung. The price gap is too large to ignore for most people.
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