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Q: Do you take steps to protect your privacy?
We probably all assume our online activities are more or less monitored, either from our computers or from our mobile phones.
I personnaly assume everything I put on the network is freely available with no restraint. I assume my SMS are stored by China Mobile, that my chats are stored by Tencent, that what's collectable on my traffic is collected by China Net.
I assume that for every local software I put on my computer, I I drop all the more info to yet another company. Most of softwares push to connect to the Internet the second they are installed (sometimes using 3 or 4 executables, such as QQ or Sogou pinyin) even if you even haven't even started using them.
Therefore I run as little of them as I can as a protective measure, along with the use of encryption for sensitive data and VPN. I probably can't stop it all, but I can limit it to the smallest extent.
Same goes for mobile phone, after seeing the gigantic mountain of crap any Android phone is delivered with, I just took the time to learn how to purify it to the best I can before I started using it.
Am I a self-important paranoid one? Am I sexy? Do you like me?
10 years 26 weeks ago in Web & Technology - China
i am probably more paranoid than you are, i have 3 different vpn's and proxies and a server to linux set up in another country to route my traffic, also i never use a bank card to purchase anything, always pay cash, and only use atm machines for my bank only.
i never answer a phone number i dont know already in my contact list.
there is no such thing as being to careful, wait till they start using drones to deliver packages and record our movements and conversations. we are becoming lab mice, we just have bigger cages and bigger toys for the government planners to observe us and our behavior.
I don't have an iphone, I pay cash, don't answer phone numbers i don't know, don't use online banking and use an alias on forums.
Paulberger:
wait your name isn't sorrel! i've being googling the wrong person... oh i mean... nevermind...
to be honest i am a little worried, but i take few preventative steps. for my personal data and bank information, none of that is on my computer. i used to work for the risk and fraud department in one of the america's largest banks and know the reprecussions for keeping the info on a hard drive. being in china, multiply that risk exponentially. as for governments and companies spying on my chats, i could do more to protect myself. both the op and the first poster made some valid suggestions that i will probably take heed of. but i live by a simple rule in china, be careful what i type or say on the internet, i know someone is watching.
I'm not paranoid, but I try to have a least-exposed-surface way of life:
* No online banking for anything above 100 USD
* I use Linux (ArchLinux distrib) with latest updates. Okay, Ithat's mostly because that's the OS I know the best, I can't use Windows or OSX anyway ^^
* Papers with addresses or similar infos are burnt and used as compost for my plants, not put in the trash
* I have a dumb Nokia 70 RMB phone, that don't have apps. Just phone, SMS and a clock.
* Never answer to a call from an unknown number (99.9999% advertisement, since one year I just don't bother answering)
* Anything personal or political is not said on the phone. I phone or SMS very little anyway.
* Anything political or serious critics are not said in my flat (short rental from a company), we wait to be outside.
I'm crap with all that stuff, the furthest I go to protect my privacy is do up my flies after using the toilet. Fortunately my wife deals with all our online banking stuff and that, and she's the smart one, i'm just here to look pretty.
And yeh.........you look very sexy. Can we see your butt now?
I am paranoid of this things. funny is, that every chinese banking online tools work only with MS IE , no firefox or any else. IE is most vulnerable, yet they push you... they know why 
TMaster:
Yeah, always found it hilarious too. Not only do they need IE, but they need IE several versions back.
No online banking security tool should need a separate executable. You don't need that to have decent security (the rest being up to your own common sense).
Why are we so worried about just China here?
Is the NSA Chinese?
Is the Canadian whatever Chinese?
Is the British GCHQ Chinese?
Get off it, you middle-aged old farts, the Western "powers" run circles around the Chinese on these matters.
If you want a police state in the making, just look across the Pacific Ocean.
Nessquick:
belle, matyy, numbers, whoever. plyyz , stop talking the dsame BS as always you do, when you come-out. always same. really. maybe you have to fly to moon and protect your country boarders ? but please, stop here ... 
belle_watson:
Nessquick, stop giving me orders. Give your wife orders, not met. Understand?
Next, get with the program. Or better yet, called one Mr. E. Snover. He might be able to fill you on the details.
God, you are sickeingly naive.
when i visit a new school and use there computer, the first thing i do is run my superspyware adware removal and windows registry error. at a middle school last week there was 732 pup and 32 trojans on one machine that supposedly had 360 protection. the chinese may not have the nsa knowledge yet but when they do, they will double down with a royal flush of spades, look what they did with cameras when they copied that idea.
Nessquick:
I do the same. everywhere 360. which is reported as trojan in Virus Bulletins worldwide. Delete, scan 20times everything, delete delete delete, rescan delete, install and than do something after 2 dayw ...
ambivalentmace:
my school office computer has 6 adware from "tencent" in the drivers file , driver genius to run the computer, still cant figure out which file to delete and some files cant be deleted, a royal pain in the ass. i have to delete the same 6 every time i use the internet.
