How do you feel when someone invades your privacy or even tries to peep in your phone when you are texting? Violated right? Imagine if a social networking app did the same to you and you couldn’t do anything about it? Well it seems, WeChat, one of the most popular messaging apps in China with a well over 600 million users have been keeping a record of all your personal data and has to feed it to the Chinese Government (unintentionally though).
The application is an alternative to apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp as most of them are blocked in the country. The Chinese government wants to do everything it can to rid the country of foreign services in efforts to control the online activities and getting access to sensitive data from local companies for it deems it ‘very’ necessary.
WeChat recently confirmed that it is sharing its users’ personal information with the Chinese authorities. The company behind WeChat, Tencent, recently announced that all the “private” user information will not be quite private anymore and to update to the latest version of the app, users must accept the new privacy policy that states that WeChat will be sharing lots of its users’ data with the Chinese government in order to comply with the country’s “applicable laws or regulations”, among other things.
The data that WeChat shares with the Chinese government include names, contacts, email addresses and sometimes, even the exact location of the user. If you make some online searches while using the app, they can also be seen by the company.
One could still be fine it but the problem is- WeChat users’ content is liable to persecution if it is deemed “objectionable.”
WeChat’s privacy statement goes like this-
We may be required to retain, preserve or disclose your Personal Information for a longer period of time:
- In order to comply with a court order, subpoena or another legal process
- In response to a request by a government authority, law enforcement agency or similar body (whether situated in your jurisdiction or elsewhere)
- Where we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations or
- In order to enforce the WeChat Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy, protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of our affiliate companies or other users of WeChat.”
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26 days agoShocking and a little scary right! You never know what could be beyond the legal search when you are too engrossed in your phone. WeChat isn’t exclusive to just China as it is available to anyone and everyone who wants to use it. You can simply download it to your phone via the Play Store. But it is surely not recommended at this point for obvious reasons. There are plenty of other apps available including Skype and Google Allo etc.