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Hello All,
We're about to move to a new apartment, and the new landlord wants to communicate with us via WeChat.
I've never used it or had it on my phone. Obviously, I'm convinced that it's pernicious spyware and will monitor all of my behavior once I download it, but I don't actually know anything about the app other than what I read in various news articles.
Those who've had it - do you find people lurking in the shadows behind you now that you have it on your phone? Is there now a clicking sound at the start of phone calls? Or am I worrying for nothing?
Thanks.
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15-01-2023, 07:10 PM #1
Putting wechat on my phone?
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15-01-2023, 08:15 PM #2
I think you worry too much. You could put it on an old phone though. Sign up with you current SIM, or get one of those $60 for a year SIM.
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16-01-2023, 12:03 AM #3
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16-01-2023, 12:46 AM #4
I left WeChat behind on an old phone.
Discovered my ex-colleagues were still receiving messages in a certain group although I wasn’t (and am still in that group), and I did concurrently receive messages in other groups. YMMV, but good luck figuring out when or why you don’t receive messages, especially now with the state’s golden share.
As merely a former user, can’t speak to whether it has other “functionalities” beyond interfering with normal (non-political) communications.
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16-01-2023, 01:36 PM #5
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16-01-2023, 02:16 PM #6
wechat is a heap of shit outside China. I installed because a client wanted to run a conference call on it. I did not use it after the project and it kicked me off. In order to get back on again, you have to have a "friend" on wechat who validates you. Did it once... again didn't use it much ... again got kicked off. Given up and uninstalled.
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16-01-2023, 02:18 PM #7
I think we'd be naive to think our privacy isn't already compromised anyways... those powers that be can probably obtain our location, SMS, CCTV, and other data irrespective of serving it up to the CCP on a silver platter by way of using Mainland software.
That said, WeChat to me is horridly bloated. Most Chinese software is. Way too many features and too much shit that most users don't need, want, or use. On my iPhone SE it causes notable issues to everything else when I leave it on in the background and forget to close. The horrendous quality of Chinese software would be my main concern, not privacy.
On the flip side you'd be surprised how much Mainlanders do discuss on WeChat (and others), and how much they can get away with. High profile people get dragged away and "disappeared". We hear scare stories of some. It happens. But for some perspective, it's also true that the government simply couldn't give a damn about private conversations of unimportant individuals. China is not quite as Orwellian as it's often made out to be.
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16-01-2023, 05:48 PM #8
Don’t use WeChat. It IS monitored in China. Use WhatsApp. Much safer.
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16-01-2023, 07:16 PM #9
Not really the point. I already use whatsapp. I'm not going to say anything *on* wechat that I'm worried will be raise any flags. there's 1 person who wants to communicate with us on wechat, and I'm going to have to figure out some way to do that. I just want to know what impact - if any - having wechat on my phone will have on using other aps on the same phone.
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16-01-2023, 08:58 PM #10
EVERYBODY has at least 2 or 3 chat apps on their phone. NOBODY has only one. So if landlord asks to chat on wechat, you say sorry I dont have, but how about whatsapp, signal, messenger, telegram, or a million other apps, and if there is really not one single app that we can both agree on then we just have to use plain old SMS?
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