It's way more powerful than WhatsApp, too (location based chats, payments, etc.). And, of course, it's not E2E encrypted; just the opposite, you can assume that it's being wiretapped/monitored.
> you can assume that it's being wiretapped/monitored.
This can be assumed with any technology stack that is popular, domestically-grown, and well-established in China.
I have WeChat installed. Would I use it to converse with people outside of China? No. But casually, it's what's accepted there, what people ask you for, and what everyone's using.
Sure, I might use it myself if I'd return to China, but I'd hate for it to become the default chat app outside China - that's what I meant with "please don't install it"...
> This can be assumed with any technology stack that is popular, domestically-grown, and well-established in China.
I just wondering, for normal people, what kind of information you concerned to not be monitored, seriously? I knew most western take the privacy higher than anything. But for most normal people living outside of US, they really don't care. You would say they are dumb, but they care more about food, entertainment than the privacy, and liberal.
To be honesty, nobody in China cared WhatsApp be blocked or not. As maybe 99.9999% Chinese even don't know there is an App called WhatsApp.
> I just wondering, for normal people, what kind of information you concerned to not be monitored, seriously?
What are normal people in your books? People who don't care what happens to non-violent political dissidents because they themselves are well aligned with their owners? That's not normal, you have to break a human child to get those results.
A child raised by illiterates and being only among them might never care about reading nor writing. So? Does that raise the value of illiteracy in my eyes? Not at all, not one bit. They're still missing out in ways I can't even explain to them.
> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Not to speak for Heinlein's fictional character, but I'd add to the list things like "decide what is right and wrong, what is good and bad". Some people think the group they belong to give them value, I think individual human beings make up groups and give them value. If most people don't care about things I find important for reasons I can articulate, that's just more people to have a discussion with. But just the fact that they are many is about as important as if someone saying something is skinny or obese. I don't multiply the value of an opinion by someone's body weight or how much money they have, and likewise I don't multiply it by how many people have an opinion.
Philosophy comes from "love of wisdom". Totalitarianism, a much better word to use here, comes from abuse and the dysfunctions that grow on it like mushrooms. I'd say the main difference between Asia and the West is that the West is sweeping the insights about totalitarianism deep thinkers had under the rug because actually, we'd love ourselves some smiling fascism; while in Asia they weren't even had. But philosophy can only even start where there is freedom of thought, and fearless people to use it. You can call anything a philosophy or a culture, it's become kind of a filler word, like "situation". Why not just say "it's against control, which is not appropriate in that situation". It's all just saying nothing and handing off the decision to others.
Well, it's E2E encrypted, that's for sure. The NSA, like the Mossad, can do pretty much anything if you're a high-value target, I'd assume, but personally, I don't think there is blanket mass surveillance of WhatsApp chats, no.
> Whatsapp is out not because it can't let authorities audit it, but because of other economic reasons.
Do you have any evidence or even arguments for that assertion?
But WeChat is dominant in China already. Nobody gives a rat's ass about WhatsApp in China (except a few people communicating across borders), as far as I can tell. The market share/penetration of WeChat won't appreciably rise due to this act.
Thus, please don't install it.