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Q: Can the Chinese Internet Police Check Our Emails, Phones?

I'm both paranoid and ignorant, which is definitely not a good combo. Enlighten me: just how easy is it for internet police to spy on our emails for keywords, sky convos or phones?

 

I heard from people that if they want to, the government has the power to pretty much shut down all phone signals for a short period of time (say, in times of crisis)...

11 years 44 weeks ago in  Health & Safety - China

 
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there are plenty of search engines that let you find people and many different methods of searching.
the best advice i can give you is lock or delete your social networks.
But anybody determined enough will find another door you can't shut or know about.

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7 years 23 weeks ago
 
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Of course they can, and be assured that it is monitored.  In China, and many other countries on Earth, under the pretense of "internal security".  Now, if you are totally clean, why does it bothers you ?.  It does not bothers or worries me one bit.  I do not deal, use, or store drugs.  I do not involve myself in any illegal type activity.  While in China, I do not talk about politics or religion with anyone.

They want to check on me, that is fine, I have no worries because I am not doing anything "borderline or dangerous".  Eventually they will get tired and seek another one to spy on.

If hackers can shut down websites at will, don't you think a government could cut out Internet access by flipping a switch type of thing.  With mainly three Internet providers in China, it would be very easy to interrupt service if needed or wanted by the Government.

But again, why worry about what could happen that may never happen ?.  I will worry when it does happens, if ever, but not before.

Mr_spoon:

I'm not sure about the getting tired part.

But it's normal not to like being spied on, even when not doing anything wrong.

Especially when looking for certain kinds of pornographic content ;P

11 years 44 weeks ago
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Thakkudu:

pornographic content like Mr/Happy's profile pic?

11 years 44 weeks ago
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11 years 44 weeks ago
 
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Mr Spoon, do you think that other societies do not do that ?.  For a fact it is done in many advance technological societies, like USA UK, etc.  It is very common to have Internet, cell phone calls, etc, screened in the name of internal security, It is unfortunate, but it has become a way of life.  Since it is nothing I can do about it, I do not allow it to worry me.  I have been living in China for two years, visiting China extensively since 1997.  Always brought a laptop with me, and surfed Internet as I wanted, and never received any visits because of it, nor a warning or a service interruption.  But as I said above, I do not join in any political or religious comments about any foreign country, and keep my surfing within the confines of my apartment.  And I do surf a lot, even some porno sites once in a while.  It is fun to watch them with my GF and make fun of the action shown.

Thakkudu: of course it is your right to consider my avatar to be XXX. And it is mine to consider it a subliminal message. There are narrow minded people who in many ways do have a prick for a brain, and I use my avatar to make fun of them. I submitted it for approval when I joined this site, and it was. So, until Mr CAT informs me that I should change it, it will stay as it is.

Mr_spoon:

I know they do, but at least they're more subtle about it. They don't try to make you feel like a criminal for looking at something other than "the sun is shining and birds are chirping in harmonious [country]".

11 years 44 weeks ago
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11 years 44 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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I've heard that they do this.

 

More importantly, your employer might also be reading your emails. So I think it is important to use a VPN.

 

It is also not true that its "safe" if you didn't do anything wrong. There are a lot of laws which are easy to break. For example, here in China it is illegal for foreigners to interfere in China's "internal affairs". So if you are caught visiting a website that criticizes China, or posting comments that have to do with politics or current events, that could be used against you.

 

You probably won't get in trouble just for small things. However, if you make enemies with the wrong person, they could use their connections to search out any small mistake you might have made.

 

I should also note that many people are habitual lawbreakers. There are people who smoke the "whacky tabbacky". There are people who date underage women, or pay for sex. There are people who cheat on their taxes or have illegal employment. There are people who break other financial, environmental, or consumer protection laws. There are people who have kinky taste in pornography. There are people who are part of activist groups which governments have labeled "terrorist". There are people who have friends or relatives who do these things and are therefore accomplices or accessories. Finally, there are people who haven't done anything wrong but can be framed by law enforcement agencies in situations where the process of law is flawed. If you add them all up, it is a lot of people. This significant portion of the populace is always under threat and and have their political power of organization and representation limited as a result.

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11 years 44 weeks ago
 
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I use a VPN, if I'm looking at streets here I can zoom down and see cars. These aren't really satelite pictures but are taken from high altitude aircraft. i use it to learn my way around the city. I looked at Thailand. If I want to show someone my house in Canada, I know it shows when at home, I can see my house, the circular driveway all sitting in the middle of about 10 acres. When I zoom in from here using a VPN when I zoom down, my screen goes black and I get a message that a driver has quit working. I'm being censored.

woody:

I use google maps all the time and can get both the map and the satellite view with or without my VPN. Sometimes it is blacked out for a short time but when I magnify or reduce it it eventually loads. The images are satellite AFAIK and are not recent. I know this because I was trying to check on the progress of our new apartment building and the image is at the stage the development was about 12 months ago. Same when I check from Aus or in China so I do not know how often they refresh the images. This is totally different to Google street view. To get street view your street has to be driven by a motorbike with 4 cameras mounted on the back. Most cities (maybe all) in Australia have street view available but II don't know if anywhere in China has been filmed.

11 years 44 weeks ago
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Shifu

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You can write, say or do just about anything here withouT fear of being wa dfhb hkjk;l;nj;lkgn; ;ggj vt;hkjgkj; kjuly;iub n;jl  HELP DKLFHDLSJKFHGLFDHHHHHHJLKJLGK

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11 years 44 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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I just use gmail and I don't think they can monitor emails sent on that webite or the other big search engine sites. That kind of volume along with state of the art secure code procedures for handling all the emails would make it damn near impossible to find someone doing something dangerous. I don't know for sure but I think they cant too interested in reading all of the email sent on google servers in the mainland.

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11 years 44 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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don't be naive, folks, 100% yes, there are filters in place on the Net at all times.  They have the equivalent or Cray supercomputers on duty in BJ.  It's easy enough to filter through all of this in the blink of an eye.  The same for phone chats and the like.  As for the Post Office, that goes without saying.

 

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11 years 44 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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If that is true anti-kchur why do they let facebook through with the use of a VPN when it has links to certain religious heads of state from countries which may or not have always been part of China. Those same links would be blocked without a VPN and they are not when using a VPN. 

anti-kchur:

vpn = restricted audience.  additionally, vpn = identity disclosure.  easy enough to track a vpn user.

11 years 43 weeks ago
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woody:

Ok anti-kchur. Answer my question. Apply logic to the answers as hard as that may be. If you don't have a VPN do the government block Google, Facebook, and sites which talk aboucertainin banned religious leaders and parts of China that may or may not have always been part of China? If you have a VPN do they block the same sites? As I already know your truthful answer to the first question will be yes and the second one will be no the next question will prove that what you say is a load of shit. If they do not want anyone in China to access the sites aforementioned and if they have the ability to use the super duper quantum computer to monitor all sites VPN or not then WHY do they not block these sites when you are using a VPN? Indeed why do they not block all VPN sites in the first place?

11 years 43 weeks ago
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Shifu

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it is very easy .
A VPN is only reliable when you know who provides you the VPN .
what you heard is true and already happened once from what I heard .
Some users in this thread have a good foresight .

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10 years 31 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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They do.  Both.

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10 years 31 weeks ago
 
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Why would anyone think the Chinese government was any different from other government and not check emails/phone calls?

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10 years 31 weeks ago
 
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No don't be silly they won't and they can't. It's virtually impossible to do that. You would have to hack into someone's computer mainframe and start debugging everything and setting everything up to their preferences....its too complicated. The phone tapping is impossible to. What you see in movies that only happens if they wire tap the phones...again they would have to work hard to do that which I don't think it could be done here. 

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10 years 30 weeks ago

There are cookies, bookies and too many rookies for me to sit here trying to be a hooky! Looky Looky don't call me a wooky. Touchy Touchy Feely Feely Spicy Spicy Nicey Nicey & that's what the doctor Ordered!!

 
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What the government don't know by monitoring you the wumao's tell the government anyway

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10 years 30 weeks ago
 
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They can also tell your location by your mobile phone, and where you use your credit/bank card.

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10 years 30 weeks ago
 
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I've wondered if they keep files or info on us. I often noticed plain clothes cops around me. One hung around the alley I had to use late at night. 

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10 years 30 weeks ago
 
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They can. Allow me to expound...

 

Do not give them your phone number or email address. You may end up needing to give them your phone number eventually. However, they cannot read your emails unless you are receiving unencrypted email messages over a Chinese internet connection.

 

If you are using Chinese software on your phone such as baidu input, QQ, et al, then they can read/do almost everything. They can and will remotely listen in on your phone if they're suspicious. Watch your data usage for strange patterns.

 

You cannot protect yourself with a VPN. PPTP is extremely insecure and easy to snoop in on. OpenVPN is still good, but!!! If you have Chinese software installed on your PC or Phone, it doesn't matter if your internet connection is encrypted when the software is logging your key strokes and sending it back. If you have QQ installed, the CCP can remotely listen in on, and control your computer. This is why I run QQ on a virtual machine.

 

This is why I keep telling my wife to stop installing Chinese software on my phone or computer. Do not use any Chinese software if you need secure communications. I do not even use sougou pinyin since it's constantly phoning home. Instead, run it within a virtual machine.

 

TLDR: Use OpenVPN and NO Chinese software.

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10 years 30 weeks ago
 
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If you google you can find stories about people getting arrested purely based on stuff they've written on their computers. There was a guy recently who, during questioning, heard word by word quotes from his wechat conversations. 

 

To the person monitoring this site. I feel sad you are so ill equipped. 

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10 years 30 weeks ago
 
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Would you like an example of how easy it is to get personal information about anyone?

Hotwater:

For some it's just a matter of searching by usernames if they aren't very careful about using different names or email addresses. As you well know.....

7 years 23 weeks ago
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philbravery:

as some people nearly found out the hard way

7 years 23 weeks ago
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Hotwater:

Yep but it wouldn't stay here for long like your last one......

7 years 23 weeks ago
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philbravery:

who edited my comment? so hotwater wants to play admin God huh. well this aint the only place to post an example im sure there are work place suppervisers that will get a kick out of it . so the ball is in your court old mate . how far do you want to go ?

7 years 23 weeks ago
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ScotsAlan:

Interesting comment from Phil. He often posts on here to tell us who to fear. He says we should fear the Muslims. Fear the libtards. Fear the progressives. And when we refuse to fear who he wants us to fear, he blatantly says we should fear him. When someone refuses to hate the people he wants us to hate, he threatens to send emails to employers, to "expose" the non haters. Wow.Why do you want everyone to live in fear dude? Fear him, fear her, fear you. Why?

7 years 23 weeks ago
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Hotwater:

It's going to stop here Phil. 

 

All I want you to do is conform to forum rules that are applied all over the Internet. No posting of users real names. Other than that just keep posting as you normally do. 

7 years 23 weeks ago
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philbravery:

so you going to stop the Nazi censorship and put back that post?

7 years 23 weeks ago
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Hotwater:

Done. You'll find two are back and edit undone. Only thing left edited is naming removed. 

 

Post away as before but no personal information as agreed. 

7 years 23 weeks ago
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7 years 23 weeks ago
 
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there are plenty of search engines that let you find people and many different methods of searching.
the best advice i can give you is lock or delete your social networks.
But anybody determined enough will find another door you can't shut or know about.

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7 years 23 weeks ago
 
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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/mom-gets-tech-obsessed-kids-163100939.html

 

change the password daily and put the crackers in a different position everyday to prove your not using photoshop and you are actually doing the cleaning chores before logging on, clever mom.

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5 years 13 weeks ago
 
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General

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yes, just like any other government that has the technology. cookies goggle maps etc. That would make the USA the best at doing that????????????

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2 years 1 week ago
 
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Seriously paranoid. I know it's an old post but the answers are wind ups.

I have used QQ and Wechat and never been monitored for things said or visited by anyone.

I have two QQ accounts and have sent messages from one to the other to check if any criticism of China is momitored. NOTHING.

My former work colleague and I were talking about the Covid situation and the words he used to criticise China were really abusive. He is still doing the rounds.

We were also talking about a school the USED to illegaly employ teachers and we used the name. Nothing happened.

I have a HUAWEI phone. No monitoring.

Some people just believe propaganda.

I have been in China for 18 years and have no worries that I am being spied on. Because I ain't.

Stiggs:

When you say you've never been monitored... how would you know? It's not like anyone is going to tell you.

 

I do mostly agree with you but I don't think the Chinese government gives a shit if some teacher is whining online to their friends. 'Maybe' you'll trigger some sort of keyword thing that puts you on a watchlist but it's pretty unlikely anyone will care enough to do anything about it.

 

If you were to go online making trouble,trying to organise groups to stir up trouble  then maybe you'd get a visit, and you'd deserve to.

2 years 1 week ago
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 Everybody knows, my search engine is the bestest ... 

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveill...

 

Imagine a society in which you are rated by the government on your trustworthiness. Your “citizen score” follows you wherever you go. A high score allows you access to faster internet service or a fast-tracked visa to Europe. If you make political posts online without a permit, or question or contradict the government’s official narrative on current events, however, your score decreases. To calculate the score, private companies working with your government constantly trawl through vast amounts of your social media and online shopping data.

When you step outside your door, your actions in the physical world are also swept into the dragnet: The government gathers an enormous collection of information through the video cameras placed on your street and all over your city. If you commit a crime—or simply jaywalk—facial recognition algorithms will match video footage of your face to your photo in a national ID database. It won’t be long before the police show up at your door.

This society may seem dystopian, but it isn’t farfetched: It may be China in a few years. The country is racing to become the first to implement a pervasive system of algorithmic surveillance. Harnessing advances in artificial intelligence and data mining and storage to construct detailed profiles on all citizens, China’s communist party-state is developing a “citizen score” to incentivize “good” behavior. A vast accompanying network of surveillance cameras will constantly monitor citizens’ movements, purportedly to reduce crime and terrorism. While the expanding Orwellian eye may improve “public safety,” it poses a chilling new threat to civil liberties in a country that already has one of the most oppressive and controlling governments in the world.

 

... more ...

 

Anna Mitchell is a student and researcher at Stanford University.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. He is the author of Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency.

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2 years 1 week ago
 
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