News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:WeChat's App Revolution by yalogin on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @10:43PM (#13432808)
What lo the status of user privacy and security in such apps? The user I am guessing should have no such expectations.
Re:WeChat's App Revolution by dingdongding on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @11:05PM (#13432916)
Privacy and China don't play hand in hand.
Re:WeChat's App Revolution by eragoins on Thursday January 19, 2017 @01:20AM (#13433525)
Does true Privacy play hand in hand with any country?

Since I don't live in China, should this bother me?

Re:WeChat's App Revolution by simonh on Thursday January 19, 2017 @04:48AM (#13434450)
Imagine if a country manages to establish a surveillance state with a single cabal in complete political, legal and economic control. Suppose that this establishes a system using modern surveillance and censorship technologies that is so complete in it's control of public and private life that the system is in a permanent steady state.

There may be several possible steady states, one might be a pervasive totalitarian surveillance state and another might be a liberal democracy with individual freedoms and a system of checks and ballances. But while both such systems exist in the world, it's possible that one or the other might establish dominance over the other. In fact one or the other winning out seems inevitable in the long term.

So as long as an oppressive totalitarian surveillance state exists in the world, there is a risk that it will become the steady state for the whole world. China has such a system. WhatsApp is thoroughly subverted by the Chinese government and is an integral part of their surveillance and censorship apparatus. It might even become the key component that enables complete and permanent stability for the Chinese totalitarian system.

Re:WeChat's App Revolution by pmontra on Thursday January 19, 2017 @05:04AM (#13434529)
Check http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-29/china-launch-social...

Then imagine yourself using one of the apps contributing data to that system, even if from outside the country. Oh well, maybe we're already using many of them and we didn't notice.

Re:WeChat's App Revolution by Markoff on Thursday January 19, 2017 @07:57AM (#13435360)
nobody censor your private communication in western apps. WeChat does. nobody delete your anti government rant on Facebook. wechat does.
Re:WeChat's App Revolution by ibic on Thursday January 19, 2017 @02:49AM (#13433923)
s/China/US/, still sounds equally right (or wrong) to me.
Re:WeChat's App Revolution by frozenport on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:40AM (#13434988)
The US has maybe the potential for surveillance, although it is not clear if and how they act. China actively acts on gathered information to arrest dissidents for thought crimes and protesting its corrupt government. They may soon assign a "citizenship" score, which has little to do with participating in government.

Lets not get the two confused.

Re:WeChat's App Revolution by DavideNL on Thursday January 19, 2017 @10:57AM (#13436744)
i was also wondering about that (privacy); "use our app to do everything"...