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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)

#451

Post by the_af »

esclerofilo wrote: post #193
walrus01 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was absolutely not (c). The US has a vast and complex array of sociopolitical, economic disparity, racism, police brutality issues, some of which have been highlighted throughout 2020. But I definitely consider it to be the lesser of two evils.

Someone from outside the US will probably worry more about its history of backing coups than the domestic problems you mentioned. If the US puts a Pinochet in my country and their algorithms say I'm likely to be a communist sympathizer, am I at risk?

Definitely. Those of us from Latin American countries have a history with the US that we don't have with China, and so while China might be bad to us, we are (mostly) outside its sphere of direct influence; on the other hand, the US has a proven track record of supporting blood-thirsty and ruthless dictators in the relatively recent past, and meddling with our democratic institutions and electoral processes, so it's the "biggest threat" to us, so to speak.

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

#452

Post by the_af »

onepointsixC wrote: post #427
esperent wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Consider Document Number 9[1], and the fact that the CCP considers your existing Irish political system and liberal ideology as a threat and one which it is actively working to undermine. You already know what it's like living in a world which the US is a dominate super power, that's what the West has experience in the past 70 years and it had created some of the greatest prosperity both the US and West have experien…

> the fact that the CCP considers your existing Irish political system and liberal ideology as a threat and one which it is actively working to undermine

For the last decades, the US has been actively trying to undermine -- mostly covertly, sometimes more openly -- leftist parties and organizations in Latin America (more often than not completely unrelated to China), so...

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

#453

Post by mensetmanusman »

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…

Amazon should be fined for selling IoT devices that do this. It is likely a threat to America’s infrastructure.

Imagine if China could stop all smart homes from working if a politician said something about concentration camps.

Do you think the average american cares more about their garage door opener working or the camps?

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

#454

Post by giantrobot »

baybal2 wrote: post #400
giantrobot wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US a baseband processor's entire software stack that controls the radio front end must be certified. They'll also have the modems to talk to the cellular networks. BPs use their own CPU(s) and an RTOS firmware that's FCC certified. This is why a baseband processor is a fully separate component from a device's application processor(s). Since the AP doesn't talk directly to the radio it doesn't need to be certif…

> In the US a baseband processor's entire software stack that controls the radio front end must be certified. Can you point where it is stated?

47 CFR.

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

#455

Post by kennu »

amenod wrote: post #370
kennu wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a cheap air quality meter which basically connects to an MQTT broker server in China to transmit its readings constantly. The phone app connects to the same MQTT server, subscribes to a topic and receives the readings. I guess this is a very simple way to do it. Too bad the MQTT server has no authentication so you can actually subscribe to any topic. Many IoT solutions seem to be made by developers not very ex…

Are you saying you can actually read the air quality readings of other users? That's... quite an oversight. :-/

The actual MQTT payload seemed to have some sort of custom encryption on it (not the usual MQTT-over-TLS). I didn't dig deep enough to find out how it works, but it didn't seem very sophisticated.

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

#456

Post by nyx_ »

methodsignature wrote: post #438
nyx_ wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a couple of Aqara sensors to report temperature back to my Home Assistant instance via a HUSBZB-1 USB Zigbee dongle[0]. They work pretty well, although they report data pretty infrequently absent any large temperature swings, so not great for data-viz purposes. I'm not at all surprised the hub thing constantly chats with its family back in China, but a properly security-paranoid home automation aficionado would…

> but a properly security-paranoid home automation aficionado wouldn't be caught dead giving some proprietary black box power and network inside their own home. That sounds like the definition of a cell phone.

Don't even get me started. :( It gives me pangs of cognitive dissonance every time I use my Android phone to type up a rant about how creepy Google is. I'd love to walk the talk, but my impression is that FOSS Linux phones aren't really viable yet if you're interested in things like, you know, functional power management or a Bluetooth stack that actually works.

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

#457

Post by Chris2048 »

amaccuish wrote: post #450
Chris2048 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"oh no, won't somebody please think of the unfortunate oppressed fascists!.. Except anyone that you want to oppress will retroactively be labelled "fascist", or "far-right" by whatever loose system serves that purpose. The latest version of "terrorist", "activist" or "heretic". and Le Pen is absolutely a fascist, in my opinion But whose opinion is canon in matters of censorship? Le Pen is also a valid political candi…

> Consider this - If a "fascist" is democratically elected, what wins: anti-fascism (presumably from the perspective of an opposing 3rd party, as Le Pen doesn't describe herself as a fascist); or democracy? This actually happened in recent history. Just because Hitler (and yes I must unfortunately rely on such a reference, and no, Le Pen is not Hitler, but it provides a good example of far-right vs democracy) was ele…

Just to clarify, by "roll over" you mean "change their democratic systems to prevent the election of fascists"?

The election of the Nazis didn't justify the sweeping power transfer that resulted, including control of the press, a private party militia (Brownshirts) etc etc etc

I'm criticising efforts to interfere with who is allowed to be elected, versus limiting what powers can be obtained through election.

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

#458

Post by rchaud »

varjag wrote: post #435
rchaud wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone in washington hates him. In public, sure. Behind the scenes, they're taking meetings with his lobbyists, and somehow the tax raise never happens despite politicians talking about ad nauseam. Part of modern politics is running a kabuki theatre of performative populism on the campaign trail. Not much happens once they are in office, because you need quick wins ahead of the next election.

You write this on the same day the President called for Amazon workers to unionize.

Which is a performative act of solidarity with warehouse workers. What happens if those in right-to-work states unionize and get sacked? Biden isn't shouldering any of the risks they are.

Actions matter more than words. At this time, it's not even clear if Biden will go to the mat for a nationwide $15/hr minimum. That would do far more to incentivize Amazon to improve working conditions, as its $15/hr starting rates would no longer be competitive.

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

#459

Post by yumraj »

melomal wrote: post #353
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…

> was talking to a bunch of Chinese servers constantly Out of curiosity do you want Chinese companies to use US servers? Or where would servers be ideally placed for a Chinese brand to be accepted? I genuinely am curious to know.

If Chinese companies place servers in US, then these servers would just be a proxy to feed data to Chinese servers.

To each there own, but I think China will have to fundamentally change at this point for me to have any trust in any Chinese companies. Just look at Alibaba. If they are not safe from CCP influence, then it is safe to assume that all Chinese companies are just shells, or under influence of, the CCP.

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

#460

Post by AntiImperialist »

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…

For the same reason anyone chooses products created in any other country. All countries can force the companies to share data hosted in that country to companies which operate in those countries.

Zoom is banned as a result of marketing efforts of competitors like Microsoft and Google. I have worked in companies which have either Microsoft products banned or Google products banned.

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