Wechat : I deleted it because I don't trust it

I finally deleted my Wechat account .
It kept flashing up intermittently in the background but I have no clue what it was doing. Other apps would show an updating sign or whatever…I checked online and it’s well known it’s full of surveillance bugs.
I don’t trust the commie software it’s gone.
I will be using some other way to contact my Chinese colleagues in future.

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I have no idea what that even is. I have LINE, WhatsApp, and even KakaoTalk from my time in Korea, so I’m not adverse to chat apps. But that Wechat sounds shady as hell.

Why did you even use it in the first place?

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It’s the most used and powerful mobile app in the whole world. Its integrated with wechat pay which the Chinese use to pay for just about everything.

Fortunately I don’t need it as much as I used to and will find other means of communication. It kept flashing on and off for a few seconds and would be running in the background for no discernible reason. Screw that.

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I seem to be forced to use it. Most other things are just impossible to get functioning without surveillance delay. Even using VPN etc seems a pain .

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Facebook is.

I heard they videotape you when you’re using it or something like that. It’s pretty creepy.

Wechat has far more powerful functionality and more daily users as a chat and payment and marketing app than FB messenger. Nothing comes close.

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But it’s not the most used. Facebook is the most used.

Not as a mobile chat and payment app it’s not.

:man_shrugging: Well, that goes to show how out of touch I am. Or how little I interact with mainlanders.

I keep it to talk with people in China. Also, discovering new friends nearby. It’s one of the few apps with the capability.

It’s another example of how Taiwan is heading down the slippery slope of commification by the obvious back door .

Luckily LINE and FB are still a lot more popular.

But wechat is basically an open season pass to spy on people in Taiwan. I get it that it’s pretty much necessary in China though.

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Line is a horrendous piece of spam garbage.

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Yes but it probably doesn’t spy on us for a foreign government .

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Nothing I’ve ever written in any chat app would be worth anything to any government, foreign of not. If you have a mobile phone and someone wants to track you they can, doesn’t require you installing any apps. If you’re in China you’re being tracked even if you have no phone, Taiwan also has similar facial recognition systems in some areas of Taipei. Why would any government want to track you personally or care what you say in chat? If you’re concerned then get rid of Facebook, whatsapp, wechat, Line, email accounts, heck, give up the internet!

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Hey Brian, I usually show this to the high school kids. Maybe it’ll be informative here.
https://youtu.be/xx1AUupLn2w

It’s the main form of communication with colleagues in China. Not their fault it’s used as to spy on them. And honestly, do you really think anything you do is private anymore? Get over it

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Get over the Chinese government collecting info on me?
Yeah I care about it and when it started doing weird stuff on me…Hit the delete button. I’m not Chinese I don’t need to use it.

Any Taiwanese who use it and don’t need to use it are just putting another stake in the coffin that is Taiwan.

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Paranoid much?

Nope. They have very active spy programs and the biggest surveillance state in the world.
Taiwan is one of their key targets and they will be key logging stuff and recording snippets of conversations . Wechat is possibly their number one tool for surveillance. We can use WhatsApp and iPhone messaging…at least they are encrypted.
I’m not saying they definitely are interested in me as an individual (and there’s no reason to be either), but I finally realised I didn’t want that commie spy shit on my phone.

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