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Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

reuters.com

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Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#61

Post by nottorp »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #50

Thanks to those who posted a link to the actual report [1] It may be worth clarifying that all those keywords and terms are in Chinese. So when they say "Free Tibet" they mean that the phone has a blacklist file that contains "西藏自由" and which use is disabled in the "European region". On the other hand, it seems that this blacklist file is actually downloaded into the phone, which suggests to me that they could update…

> which suggests to me that they could update it to match any terms in any language if they wanted.

About the same thing as Apple scanning iPhones for what they say is child porn.

suggests to me they could update it to match any images if they wanted...

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#62

Post by lmilcin »

I wonder why is anybody still surprised.

China has no qualms invading privacy of anybody. They will try any and every way to get whatever they need and they are pretty effective at it.

Ever read about making business in China? What we call cheating or stealing is a standard business practice there. If you point it out they will back off and try somewhere else, ad nauseam. It is practically part of Chinese culture and upbringing.

Why do you think "chinese" is practically synonym to "cheap and most likely defective"?

Just say no to Chinese phones and TVs and internet services, because you WILL be exploited. It is not a question if but rather when and whether you will or will not know about it.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#64

Post by hef19898 »

reginold wrote: post #56
hef19898 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you are based in China, a Chinese national, a known dissident or a journalist it doesn't really matter, does it? Also, how do you know what Xiaomi did after you typed it? EDIT: As I really phrased it badly, I mean it doesn't proof anything if none of the above mentioned groups does it. It absolutely matters that Xiaomi is censoring and monitoring stuff based on key words. I oppose that even more than oppose Ap…

Are you saying you don't care what happens to journalists around the world? Seems like a recipe for disaster.

No, quite the opposite actually. Just that it doesn't mean anything if a random Xiaomi user in Europe can type words Xiaomi is monitoring. Since that user most likely isn't the reason why Xiaomi is doing that kind of stuff.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#65

Post by 5e92cb50239222b »

hxii wrote: post #43
gpderetta wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was stupid enough to buy a Xiaomi phone without enough due diligence. Aside from all spying that is going on, the software is abysmal. The problem with replacing the OS is that I believe most banking apps I use will stop working. Might just need to write this phone off.

I have installed an AOSP-based rom on my Xiaomi 9T and banking apps (well, at least one) seems to be working fine.

Did you have any problems with AOSP? I want to replace the stock spyware on me mom's 9T, but the experience seems to be mixed, judging by a couple of forum discussions.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#66

Post by avodonosov »

reginold wrote: post #59
avodonosov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly are the allegations then? "have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet" Censor by preventing one posting the phrase? Removing the phrase from web pages? What are the steps to reproduce?

It's all covered in the 32 page research report: Xiaomi system applications (Security, MiBrowser, Cleaner, MIUI Package Installer and Themes) have been found to regularly download the manufacturer’s updated configuration file MiAdBlacklistConfig from a server located in Singapore. This file contains a list composed of the titles, names and other information of various religious and political groups and social movemen…

Right

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#67

Post by beerandt »

gpderetta wrote: post #36
amiga-workbench wrote: post #2

I think you would have to be mad to leave the stock ROM running on a Xiaomi phone, IIRC they were caught logging peoples browser history a few years ago. Several models have mainline LineageOS support, I'm running Lineage on my Mix 2S and hope to have years worth of updates going forward. The hardware is really good value as long as you install an non-tainted OS.

I was stupid enough to buy a Xiaomi phone without enough due diligence. Aside from all spying that is going on, the software is abysmal. The problem with replacing the OS is that I believe most banking apps I use will stop working. Might just need to write this phone off.

Banking has to be the dumbest "security" industry there is.

Restrict apps, but can still log in via browser.

I have one bank app that actually says to screenshot a payment screen for your records, while blocking screenshots via app policy.

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#68

Post by oblak »

tyingq wrote: post #42
avodonosov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly are the allegations then? "have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet" Censor by preventing one posting the phrase? Removing the phrase from web pages? What are the steps to reproduce?

The allegation is that the censorship code is there. It's disabled on phones in western markets, but can be enabled remotely by the manufacturer.

So, it's better than US made spyware which cannot be removed from "our" PC CPUs? Best we can do is "disable" these features in the BIOS/UEFI and sleep well, even though we nothing's really stopped.

Sorry for the whataboutism but I am lot less concerned about Chinese spyware because I know for a fact that my government serves the EU and the US.

All this anti China propaganda is really tiresome. China this, China that. Someone seems really scared. Fuck this someone

Re: Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns

#70

Post by reginold »

What's "decomposition analysis" and how can I do it at home?

Since others here are curious, how would one go replicating these results to find the MiAdBlacklistConfig file? Can I download the OS from a website and just search for strings in the MiAdBlacklistConfig file? I'm genuinely interested, rather than using this question to cast doubt on the 32 page research report.

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