Communicating with China?

[PaulQ]

One thing that did stick in the back of my head was this is an all Chinese phone without Google's involvement and I wondered about whether or not it would send my personal information back to China similar to the fiasco with the Blu phones. I installed Spy Monitor to see what my phone was communiting with. I have seen these communications with Hong Kong twice. Sure it could be some other app and completely innocent.

I could just be paranoid. Anyone out there able to interpret this? Have any thoughts?



If you are one of those people who write these things off with phrases like, "the U.S. government is listening in on everything you do anyway," your are entitled to your opinion but this post is not about debating the existence of monitoring in the U.S. I'm just curious about China's activity here. Please don't turn this thread into a debate over the issue of privacy. I am curious about whether or not people think this could be China monitioring our phones - collecting up personal data, email, call logs, etc. AFTER that would come the discussion of whether or not it is acceptable.

 

[Tim1954]

Yes, I'd be nervous about that one. Chinese aren't very concerned with violating privacy it seems... I've heard of their devices doing that before

 

[soma4society]

One thing that did stick in the back of my head was this is an all Chinese phone without Google's involvement and I wondered about whether or not it would send my personal information back to China similar to the fiasco with the Blu phones. I installed Spy Monitor to see what my phone was communiting with. I have seen these communications with Hong Kong twice. Sure it could be some other app and completely innocent.

I could just be paranoid. Anyone out there able to interpret this? Have any thoughts?

View attachment 250677View attachment 250678

If you are one of those people who write these things off with phrases like, "the U.S. government is listening in on everything you do anyway," your are entitled to your opinion but this post is not about debating the existence of monitoring in the U.S. I'm just curious about China's activity here. Please don't turn this thread into a debate over the issue of privacy. I am curious about whether or not people think this could be China monitioring our phones - collecting up personal data, email, call logs, etc. AFTER that would come the discussion of whether or not it is acceptable.

If you want a more comforting answer, the reporting that I saw on this topic suggests this was limited to "lower end" phones.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/china-phones-software-security.html

The more comprehensive, and disconcerting, response is that it's probably happening to some degree with more than just entry level phones.

I would still trust the mate 9. But "trust" is a fluid term here. I think Huawei's increased global profile, and it's partnership with Google for the recent Nexus, might...*might*...Be enough to temper the really egregious spyware activity from this company. Especially from their flagship phone.

But we are all being watched...And listened to...And databased. So ultimately just decide what trade off you're willing to make for tech.

 

[PaulQ]

If you want a more comforting answer, the reporting that I saw on this topic suggests this was limited to "lower end" phones.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/china-phones-software-security.html

Yes. I know the phones were low end and I was going to say that doesn't really matter but then I thought about what you said next...

I would still trust the mate 9. But "trust" is a fluid term here. I think Huawei's increased global profile, and it's partnership with Google for the recent Nexus, might...*might*...Be enough to temper the really egregious spyware activity from this company. Especially from their flagship phone.

The fact that Huawei is attempting to break into the U.S. market with a flagship level phone would reduce the likelyhood they would make the stupid mistake of putting spyware on their phones. If (when) discovered, it would kill their U.S. dreams and possibly strike a blow to their sales worldwide.

But we are all being watched...And listened to...And databased. So ultimately just decide what trade off you're willing to make for tech.

Maybe it's just me, I see a difference whent he spying is coming from a country like China compared to the mass cataloguing of data within the U.S. I'm patriotic about my privacy violations.

 

[PaulQ]

Yes, I'd be nervous about that one. Chinese aren't very concerned with violating privacy it seems... I've heard of their devices doing that before

I should have pointed out that I did not extensively check my Nexus 6P, also made by Huawei, so I don't have a baseline with Huawei or Chinese phones. I am going to turn on my 6P and leave it on for a day and see if it tries to "phone home" to its motherland. Although, it's only on WiFi now.

 

[Gdwheel]

China will be very disappointed if they get data/info from my phone. My work and personal data will not help them in any way. For others it may be different. With everything we store in the "cloud" these days, someone has access to a lot of the information we access on our computers, phones and tablets. I assume Google has access to most of my data anyway, even if it is "anonymous." That does not make it right, it is just a way of life in this day and age.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

There could be a lot of statistical data on hardware and performance. Battery temp anyone?

Other usage and software. Uptime, reboots, carrier, everything but nothing personal.

And it makes sense. Plus they surely have American support and servers.

 

[JZ VR]

Maybe it's just me, I see a difference whent he spying is coming from a country like China compared to the mass cataloguing of data within the U.S. I'm patriotic about my privacy violations.

It's fine to be patriotic but not blindly patriotic, you're alright with your own government+corporations like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and etc. spying on you but not China? Like I've stated before even if you are being spied on by the Chinese what is China going to do with your data compared to your own government where they have access to where you live and American companies where your info could be sold for money, be shared+used for other purposes?

 

[mikef91]

Back in the fall I took a cybercrime course while finishing my degree. I took it as an elective figuring it would be interesting as I was not a criminal justice major. There was a mention of Huawei in the textbook in terms of questioning their intention to sell phones in the US as a way to steal data. I'd be concerned because there's alot they can do. They can garner passwords to the apps you use, especially your mobile banking and social media, if that's your thing. I had the text on my Kindle app, but I think it expired. I'll see if I can dig up what was written.