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China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

mashable.com

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Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#91

Post by excalibur »

toast0 wrote: post #79
zython wrote: post #5

>The app reportedly scans for the MD5 digital signatures of media files in the phone, and matches them to a stored database of offending files classified by the government as illegal "terrorist-related" media. What a dumb way to scan for "illegal" content, considering the goverment already controls their portion of the internet. So instead of monitoring who is accessing what they decide to compare checksums of files…

This is very competent. It identifies some people trafficking in prohibited files, and it also identifies the true danger to the state -- people willing to circumvent their rules; when you pick up someone for bad files, and he (or his phone) says his buddy sent them, but his buddy's friend didn't report in, his buddy is eligible for a lot more trouble.

> MD5

> This is very competent.

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#93

Post by dionian »

nunobrito wrote: post #31
em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Islamic extremism" In Xinjiang region, the concern is more about separatism , which is not terrorism, and which should be a right of any group. > "Anyone criticizing China while permitting their own country to do worse is an hypocrite" One can be critical of their own government while still being critical of others. Even in US, ordinary people don't have much control over the government, in particular over the sec…

Islamic extremism is deeply connected to separatism. That's what the "Islamic State" is all about. You can surely be critical of others, your own government does comparably worse to the same minority without even letting ordinary people know. That is hypocrisy.

"Islamic extremism" is a nebulous category that can be ascribed to ANY socio-political unrest of peoples who happen to live in a predominantly muslim area.

What do they call extremism in other areas with deep socioeconomic problems? Non-islamic extremism?

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#95

Post by astebbin »

kijin wrote: post #37
libeclipse wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing potential backdoors in proprietary systems with forced installation of spyware on endpoint devices? I don't think they're the same.

Devil's advocate: Forced installation of highly visible spyware can be better in the sense that it makes people acutely aware of the fact that they're being spied on. From now on, separatists in Xinjiang will be reluctant to exchange their ideas on their phones and try to find other ways to communicate or circumvent the spyware. For example, someone might come up with a cracked version of the spyware that doesn't act…

I think forced, public smartphone surveillance is absolutely worse than secret surveillance, in two ways. First, it has a strong chilling effect on free speech and free thought. In a country where the rule of law is not well-established, you can never be sure what the local officials consider "bad" speech. As a result, you keep your mouth shut more often, just in case. This takes a psychological toll on everyone surveilled, not just criminals.

Second, dedicated criminals will now actively avoid the compromised smartphones and seek alternate means of communication. As others have noted, the current surveillance malware seems easy to circumvent. This is why spy agencies don't generally advertise their sources and methods.

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#96

Post by mrkrabo »

throw2016 wrote: post #83

No one cares about China or the people of Xinjiang. China probably cares more about them than anyone else. Human rights is just an opportunity for many to grandstand and make smug declarations while making the flimsiest of excuses with a straight face and hand waving away their own government's actions. Unfortunately so much water has flown under the bridge this is just not credible. What happened to the concern for…

>What happened to the concern for all the refugees from Syria now, everyone is fighting to keep them away

It was the media. I'm sure if people had voted to say whether they wanted the refugees in Europe or not, the "no" would've won.

And as soon as refugees stopped giving them ratings, the media stopped talking about them, and that was it.

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#97

Post by astebbin »

paradite wrote: post #94

Same intention, different approaches, move on to more interesting topics. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14823596

How is pervasive, compulsive surveillance at all comparable to redirected search queries for extremist content by a private business?

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#98

Post by CyberDildonics »

zython wrote: post #5

>The app reportedly scans for the MD5 digital signatures of media files in the phone, and matches them to a stored database of offending files classified by the government as illegal "terrorist-related" media. What a dumb way to scan for "illegal" content, considering the goverment already controls their portion of the internet. So instead of monitoring who is accessing what they decide to compare checksums of files…

Not to mention that it should be entirely possible to find offending files and create files that have MD5 collisions with them, causing false positives.

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#99

Post by astebbin »

mrkrabo wrote: post #6

This is interesting. It goes to show how an autoritarian government can fix some problems in a more effective way. You can remove terrorist propaganda from YouTube, but how do you stop the spread of those videos in private platforms or messaging applications? And even if the first version of this spying app only checks for md5 sums, which is arguably useless, I'm sure they're working on something more effective.

I personally doubt this will help solve the problem. Reminding a restive population that you dominate and scrutinize every aspect of their lives, even those of people who follow the rules, is a great way to build more resentment against a state. It also instructs the real terrorists to avoid the publicly-compromised communication channels.

Re: China forces one of its Muslim minorities to install spyware on their phones

#100

Post by paradite »

nkassis wrote: post #24
nunobrito wrote: post #11

Its their country and their laws, trying to solve the problem of Islamic extremism on their own. In western countries, you get detained for years in Guantanamo under torture without knowing for sure why you got arrested. Young girls get married as early as 12 to creepy old dudes and there is no need to ask for installing spyware because the phones and communications are already tapped by default. Anyone criticizing C…

"Anyone criticizing China while permitting their own country to do worse is an hypocrite." Ridiculous statement. "Permitting", like it's my choice? You can live in a country and disagree with some of what it does. Even better in democracies where you can do so publicly and have some form of impact through voting. Also happy I'm able to discuss this topic online without this post getting blocked/deleted and facing pos…

But https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=17954365954889690...
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