Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Safest way of using WeChat on Android? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 7 months ago by bionicjoey@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

81 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I live in Canada. My girlfriend is Chinese (also living in Canada), and while we are able to communicate via SMS, her mobile carrier isn't the best, and so there have often been issues for us with regular texting. She expressed a strong preference to use WeChat, at least as a backup option for when texting fails us. While I have some pretty significant reservations, it's not the hill I want to die on. So my question is: what can be done to use WeChat without compromising my whole phone? I'm okay with it if our conversations aren't private, but I'd like to know that I'm not giving unfettered access to all of my phone's systems and data to the CCP. What can be done to limit the reach of this ubiquitous app on my device?

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[–] Antitoxic9087@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If you are serious with this relationship (or you expect to still have Chinese partners in the future), I strongly recommend you buy a separate device for all the Chinese spywares required to maintain communication with your partner(s). At some point you will have to enter China, and it is best that you take only this device with you into it then.

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[–] ebd6a8c9051028dc1607@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago

use https://f-droid.org/packages/com.oasisfeng.island.fdroid/ (work profile) to isolate. and use a pay as you go number to register (rather than you commonly used one). do not grant any permission. set background restriction to strict. force stop it after every use. i think that would be enough

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Why don't you use a better messaging app? If not matrix, then signal? Even telegram is better compared to both wechat and sms.

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[–] Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml -2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Weird perspective for someone using Google services lmao.

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[–] chezjoeong@lemmy.world -2 points 7 months ago

And you're not concerned about Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta or even the NSA?

[–] eveninghere@beehaw.org -5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Just tell her there's email. If she insists on WeChat... Maybe she's... err...

I mean, a messaging app isn't suited for a back up. Just throw her phone into the toilet, and many such apps are gone forever.

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