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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)

#401

Post by grishka »

bildung wrote: post #355
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…

How is that different from stock Android, besides this being per app and having to give blanket permission for all things Google right at installation of stock Android?

For one, Google Play services come with a disable button. So, apparently, yes, you can de-googlify your phone without flashing anything.

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

#402

Post by 12ian34 »

BelenusMordred wrote: post #314
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 truly don't understand, from a security and privacy perspective, why would anyone would voluntarily choose to run closed-source software from a company that's subject to domestic laws and regulations in the United States. Fixed that for you. Xiaomi offer an official bootlock unloader for their shitty MIUI roms which no one else on the planet does and is one of two companies out there that sells stock android phon…

I think it's important that you raised your point, but I don't see that Xiaomi providing stock android phones and the ability to unlock the bootloader on their MIUI phones forgives them from the clear privacy issues highlighted in the original post, particularly given that the vast majority of their customers stick with the default/popular option.

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

#403

Post by mcv »

deepstack wrote: post #396
goodells wrote: post #294

Related to Xiaomi, the company is also doing some sketchy things in the smart home space under their brand "Aqara". I use HomeKit in my apartment and opted for Aqara branded wireless buttons and temp/humidity sensors because of the attractive hardware and good reviews. The devices require a wi-fi connected hub, not too strange for things that use Zigbee, so I gave that a go. Well, on cursory examination, the Aqara/Xi…

the company is also doing some sketchy things in the smart home space under their brand "Aqara" The whole idea of connecting everything to the internet is getting out of hand. 1. Internet and digital infrastructure has no integrity as how it is currently. 2. Anything for home, machinery, all should work when there is NO internet connection. Just like an app should work (to some extend) in airplane mode. It really com…

The only company I would trust with home automation at this point is IKEA. They're the only ones doing this who are actually in the business of making their customers' homes nice, rather than collecting and monetizing their customers' data.

(And now I'm half expecting someone to respond that IKEA also collects our data. I don't know if they do, and I'd expect them not to, but I'd really like to know if they do.)

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

#404

Post by kartoshechka »

usr1106 wrote: post #341

I know close to nothing about Android development in general and absolute nothing about Xiaomi in particular. When looking at the code snippets in the article I wonder about the variable names. This doesn't look like decompiled code. And I don't think their whole browser is open source. What am I missing here?

To make discoveries like that harder and protect software from commercial standpoint, its code obfuscated before shipping. Something similar modern JS frameworks do to make code smaller and ship it through network faster

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

#405

Post by melomal »

buran77 wrote: post #386
melomal wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I am trying to figure out. I have a UK focused website therefore I use UK based servers, US focused website I use US based servers. Aren't most processing chips/hardware made in China for all major western tech companies anyway? I get the RU/China server suspiciousness but as far as I can tell, US unicorns are up to the same tricks and openly/brazenly pillaging data without any threat or fear.

We're in a western/US-centric bubble here on HN. People are aware data collection is bad, they'd rather not have it at all even if they'll accept some from Google, MS, Amazon, etc., but most of all they'd rather not have China/Russia/NK/etc. have any that data. As you can already tell, just asking the question is enough to get flak. Otherwise most consumer products (devices or software) phone home for one reason or a…

Thank you for your response and clarification! Your point on the multiple attempts to connect etc seems to make sense. I would imagine a lot of people checking these requests may jump to conclusions that every piece of data is being pulled across.

> just asking the question is enough to get flak

You are definitely right about that!

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

#407

Post by melomal »

kwanbix wrote: post #391
melomal wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I am trying to figure out. I have a UK focused website therefore I use UK based servers, US focused website I use US based servers. Aren't most processing chips/hardware made in China for all major western tech companies anyway? I get the RU/China server suspiciousness but as far as I can tell, US unicorns are up to the same tricks and openly/brazenly pillaging data without any threat or fear.

Of course (almost?) no government is a saint. However, China is a totalitarian non-democratic government. I would fear the Chinese government much more than the US or UK governments, for example. But I might be too naive.

> I would fear the Chinese government

If you are outside of China then surely there is nothing to really be scared of? What could the Chinese government do with your data that could cause harm?

I get it's the principle but ultimately we are all scared of sharing our data with China and I am not sure why?

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

#408

Post by amelius »

mcv wrote: post #403
deepstack wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the company is also doing some sketchy things in the smart home space under their brand "Aqara" The whole idea of connecting everything to the internet is getting out of hand. 1. Internet and digital infrastructure has no integrity as how it is currently. 2. Anything for home, machinery, all should work when there is NO internet connection. Just like an app should work (to some extend) in airplane mode. It really com…

The only company I would trust with home automation at this point is IKEA. They're the only ones doing this who are actually in the business of making their customers' homes nice, rather than collecting and monetizing their customers' data. (And now I'm half expecting someone to respond that IKEA also collects our data. I don't know if they do, and I'd expect them not to, but I'd really like to know if they do.)

It's a company. With shareholders. Even if you can trust them now, that's no guarantee for the future. Trusting companies is just silly.

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

#409

Post by [deleted] »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #102
danpalmer wrote: post #16

This paragraph stood out to me: > The intention here seems to be that aigt is the timestamp when the ID was generated. So if that timestamp deviates from current time by more than 7776000000 milliseconds (90 days) a new ID is going to be generated. However, this implementation is buggy, it will update aigt on every call rather than only when a new ID is generated. So the only scenario where a new ID will be generated…

> If we assume that Xiaomi aren't literally trying to spy for a government Is that even allowed by Chinese law?

[deleted]

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

#410

Post by riston »

goodells wrote: post #294

Related to Xiaomi, the company is also doing some sketchy things in the smart home space under their brand "Aqara". I use HomeKit in my apartment and opted for Aqara branded wireless buttons and temp/humidity sensors because of the attractive hardware and good reviews. The devices require a wi-fi connected hub, not too strange for things that use Zigbee, so I gave that a go. Well, on cursory examination, the Aqara/Xi…

About the smart home space, there is also Home Assistant which basically provides all the tools to keep everything isolated from internet.
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